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FIFA

FIFA

right The Fédération Internationale de Football Association, universally known by its acronym FIFA, is the international governing body of football (soccer). Its headquarters are in Zürich, Switzerland and its current president is Sepp Blatter.

History

:Main article: History of FIFA The need for a single body to oversee the worldwide game became apparent at the beginning of the 20th century with the increasing popularity of international fixtures. The English Football Association had chaired many discussions on setting up an international body, but was perceived as making no progress. It fell to seven other European countries to band together to form this association. FIFA was founded in Paris on May 21, 1904 - the French name and acronym persist to this day, even in English-speaking countries. Its first president was Robert Guérin. FIFA presided over its first international competition in 1906, however it met with little approval or success. This, in combination with economic factors, led to the swift replacement of Guérin with Daniel Burley Woolfall from England, by now a member association. The next tournament staged, the football competition for the 1908 Olympics in London was more successful, despite the presence of professional footballers, contrary to the founding principles of FIFA. Membership of FIFA expanded beyond Europe with the application of South Africa in 1909, Argentina in 1912 and the United States in 1913. FIFA however floundered during World War I with many players sent off to war and the possibility of travel for international fixtures severely limited. Post-war, following the death of Woolfall, the organisation fell into the hands of Dutchman Carl Hirschmann. It was saved from extinction, but at the cost of the withdrawal of the Home Nations, who cited an unwillingness to participate in international competitions with their recent World War enemies.

The World Cup

:Main article: Football World Cup Jules Rimet became the third President of FIFA in 1921. He presided over another two successful Olympic competitions despite the absence of England and Scotland. The success of the competitions, combined with the rising profile of the game, allowed FIFA to seriously consider, for the first time, staging its own regular World Championship. Talks on the matter began in 1928, and the first World Cup took place in Uruguay in 1930 and was won by the home nation. Despite the reluctance of participation from European nations (due to the travel time required and the ongoing economic depression), the tournament was considered a success and plans were laid for the next World Cup in 1934, in Italy. Excluding a break for World War II, the World Cup continues to be held once every four years, with the most recent tournament in 2002 held in Japan and South Korea. The next World Cup will be held in Germany in 2006.

Other tournaments

Aside from the World Cup and Olympic competitions, FIFA organises World Championships for players at under-17 level and youth level. In addition to this, it has introduced the Confederations Cup, a competition for the champions from each confederation (plus the hosts and World Cup Winners), every two years; in the year before a World Cup, it serves as a dry run for that competition, with the World Cup host staging the tournament as a test of facilities. With the development of the women's game, FIFA introduced the Women's World Cup in 1991 and the Women's Under-20 World Championship in 2002. A U-17 women's championship will start in 2008. FIFA's only major club competition is the FIFA Club World Championship. It was slated as the natural progression of the European/South American Cup (which itself ran under a variety of names) to include clubs from all confederations. The tournament was not warmly received on its debut in 2000 and its 2002 edition was cancelled. The tournament, with a shorter revised format, is due to return in Japan in 2005. FIFA also presides over World Cups in modified forms of the game including beach football (the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup and futsal (the FIFA Futsal World Cup).

Laws of the game

The laws of football that govern the game are not solely the responsibility of FIFA; they are maintained by a body called the International Football Association Board (IFAB). FIFA has a 50% representation on its board (four representatives); the other four are provided by the football associations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, in recognition of the British nations' unique contribution to the creation and history of the game.

Organisation

Northern Ireland Under the auspices of the President, FIFA is split into six confederations which oversee the game in the different continents and regions of the world. National federations must claim membership to both FIFA and the confederation in which their nation is geographically resident for their teams to qualify for entry to FIFA's competitions (with a few geographic exceptions listed below):
- AFC - Asian Football Confederation in Asia
- CAF - Confédération Africaine de Football in Africa
- CONMEBOL - Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol in South America
- CONCACAF - Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football in North America and Central America
- OFC - Oceania Football Confederation in Australia and Oceania
- UEFA - Union of European Football Associations in Europe. Nations straddling the traditional boundary between Europe and Asia have generally had their choice of confederation. As a result, nations including Russia and Turkey have chosen to become part of UEFA despite the bulk of their land area being in Asia. Israel, although lying entirely within Asia, joined UEFA in 1994, after decades of isolation by many of its Middle Eastern neighbors. Kazakhstan were the latest nation to make the move from AFC to UEFA, in 2002. Guyana and Suriname have always been CONCACAF members despite being South American countries. Australia have been given permission to join the AFC instead of the OFC from 2006 onwards. Australia have long lobbied for a change due to its national team's strength, which is disproportionate to the other Oceania teams. No team from the OFC is offered automatic qualification to the World Cup; instead the winner of their section must play a play-off against a CONMEBOL side, a hurdle at which Australia have traditionally fallen. Perhaps ironically, Australia successfully qualified for the by winning just such a playoff in a penalty shootout against Uruguay, just a few months after the clearance to move was granted. In total, FIFA recognises 207 national federations and their associated national teams; see the list of national football teams and their respective country codes. The FIFA World Rankings are updated monthly and rank each team based on their performance in international competitions, qualifiers, and friendly matches. There is also a world ranking for women's football, updated four times a year.

Recognitions and awards

FIFA awards, each year, the title of FIFA World Player of the Year to the most prestigious player of the year, as part of its annual awards ceremony with also recognises team and international football achievements. As part of its centennial celebrations in 2004, FIFA organised a "Match of the Century" between France and Brazil, the most successful national teams of the last decade. In addition, it commissioned arguably the most famous player ever, Pelé, to produce a list of the greatest players of all time. This list, the FIFA 100, included 50 players who were still actively playing at the time of publication (one of whom was female), and 75 retired players (including himself, but not including deceased players, with one woman). The list was originally planned to be just 100 players long but Pelé is understood to have found it too hard to choose just 100.

Commercial activities

FIFA announced in April 2004 that it is expecting to earn $144 million profit on $1.64 billion in revenue between 2003 and 2006. FIFA has licensed its name and copyrighted content to computer game designer EA Sports to provide a number of footballs simulation games for PC and various game consoles. A new instalment in this FIFA series of games is introduced each year, and additional versions are released with World Cup branding to coincide with these tournaments. There was also a one-off "urban football" game (FIFA Street).

External link

- [http://www.fifa.com/ FIFA web site] FIFA zh-min-nan:FIFA ko:국제축구연맹 ja:国際サッカー連盟

Sport governing body

A sport governing body comes in several forms.
- International federations - these take care of one sport (or a group of sports, such as skiing). They create a common set of rules and organise international competitions. Promotion of the sport is also a task of an international federation.
- National federation - these have the same objectives as an international federation, but then within the scope of one country, or even part of a country. They support local clubs and are often responsible for the national squad.
- Olympic associations/committees - these are responsible for a country's participation in the Olympics Games.
- Multi-sport event organisers - these take care of the organisation of a certain event which contains more than one sport. The most important example is the IOC, organiser of the modern Olympic Games.
- General sports organisations - these take care of sports related topics, usually for a certain group, such as Catholic or Jewish sport, military or university sport.
- Professional leagues, which may or may not work extensively with national and/or international federations.
- Trusts - these are organizations or groups that have control over money that will be used to help someone else, such as the Youth Sport Trust. The first international federations were formed at the end of the 19th century. See also the list of sport governing bodies for more complete list of specific governing bodies. category:sports organisations

Football (soccer)

:Soccer redirects here. For other senses, see soccer (disambiguation). soccer (disambiguation) Association football, soccer, or simply football (see below) is a ball game played between two teams of eleven players, each attempting to win by scoring more goals than their opponent. Football is played predominantly with the feet, but players may use any part of their body except their hands and arms to propel the ball; the exceptions to this are throw-ins (ie: when the ball goes out of bounds, field players throw the ball into play from the sidelines) and the two players acting as goalkeepers, who are the only ones allowed to handle the ball on the field of play, albeit with restrictions. The sport is known by a variety of names in different parts of the English-speaking world, usually association football and its contraction, soccer. These names are often used to distinguish the game from other codes of football, since the word "football" may be used to refer to several quite different games. Football is played at a professional level all over the world, and millions of people regularly go to a football stadium to follow their favourite team, whilst millions more avidly watch the game on television. A very large number of people also play football at an amateur level. According to a survey conducted by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), football's governing body, published in the spring of 2001, over 240 million people regularly play football in more than 200 countries in every part of the world. Its simple rules and minimal equipment requirements have no doubt aided its spread and growth in popularity. In many parts of the world football evokes great passions and plays an important role in the life of individual fans, local communities, and even nations; it is therefore often claimed to be the most popular sport in the world.

Nature of the game

Two teams of eleven players each compete to get a spherical ball (itself known as a football) into the other team's goal, thereby scoring a goal. The team which has scored the most goals at the conclusion of the game is the winner; if both teams have an equal number of goals then the game is a draw. The primary rule for this objective is that players, other than the goalkeepers, may not intentionally touch the ball with their hands or arms during play (though they do use their hands during a throw-in restart). Although players mainly use their feet to move the ball around, they may use any part of their bodies other than their hands or arms. throw-in In typical game play, players attempt to move towards a goal through individual control of the ball, such as by dribbling (running with the ball close to their feet); by passing the ball from team-mate to team-mate; and by taking shots at the goal. Opposition players may try to regain control of the ball by intercepting a pass or through tackling the opponent who controls the ball. Football is generally a free-flowing game with the ball in play at all times except when the ball has left the field of play by wholly crossing over a boundary line (either on the ground or in the air), or play has been stopped by the referee. When play has been stopped, it recommences with a specified restart (see below). The game is played in accordance with a set of rules known as the Laws of the Game, which are summarised below.

The Laws of the Game

History and development

The Laws of the Game are based on efforts made in the mid-19th century to standardise the rules of the widely varying games of football played at the public schools of England. The first set of rules resembling the modern game were produced at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1848, at a meeting attended by representatives from Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester and Shrewsbury, but they were far from universally adopted. During the 1850s, many clubs were formed, thoughout the English-speaking world, independent of schools or universities, to play various forms of football. Some came up with their own distinct codes of rules, most notably the Sheffield Football Club (formed by former pupils from Harrow) in 1857, which led to formation of a Sheffield FA in 1867. In 1862, J.C. Thring of Uppingham School also devised an influential set of rules. These efforts contribute to the formation of The Football Association (The FA) in 1863 which first met on the evening of 26 October 1863 at the Freemason's Tavern in Great Queen Street, London. The only school to be represented on this occasion was Charterhouse. The Freemason's Tavern was the setting for five more meetings between October and December, which eventually produced the first comprehensive set of rules. At the final meeting, the first FA treasurer, who was the representative from Blackheath, withdrew his club from the FA over the removal of two draft rules at the previous meeting, the first which allowed for the running with the ball in hand and the second, obstructing such a run by hacking (kicking an opponent in the shins), tripping and holding. Other English rugby clubs followed this lead and did not join the FA but instead in 1871 formed the Rugby Football Union. The eleven remaining clubs, under the charge of Ebenezer Cobb Morley, went on to ratify the original fourteen rules of the game. Despite this, the Sheffield FA played by its own rules until the 1870s. Today the laws of the game are determined by the International Football Association Board (IFAB). The Board was formed in 1882 after a meeting in Manchester of The Football Association, the Scottish Football Association, the Football Association of Wales, and the Irish Football Association. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association FIFA, the international football body, was formed in Paris in 1904 and declared that they would adhere to the rules laid down by the IFAB. The growing popularity of the international game led to the admittance of FIFA representatives to the IFAB in 1913. Today the board is made up of four representatives from FIFA and one representative from each of the four British associations. 1913

Overview of the Laws

There are seventeen Laws in the official Laws of the Game. The same laws are designed to apply to all levels of football, although the preface to the Laws does grant national associations the ability to authorise certain modifications for juniors, seniors, women, etc. The Laws are often framed in broad terms, which allows flexibility in their application depending on the nature of the game. In addition to the seventeen Laws, numerous IFAB decisions and other directives contribute to the regulation of football. The Laws can be found on the [http://www.fifa.com/en/regulations/regulation/0,3527,3,00.html official FIFA website].

Players and equipment

Each team consists of a maximum of eleven players (excluding substitutes), one of whom must be the goalkeeper. Competition rules may state a minimum of seven players are required to constitute a team. There are a variety of positions in which the outfield players are strategically placed by a manager/coach, though these positions are not defined or required by the Laws. One player on each team must be designated as that team's goalkeeper. The goalkeeper is the only player allowed to handle the ball with his hands or arms, but is restricted to doing so within the penalty area (also known as the "box" or "18 yard box") in front of his own goal. The basic equipment players are required to wear includes a shirt (or jersey), shorts, socks (or stockings), footwear and adequate shin guards. Players are forbidden to wear or use anything that is dangerous to themselves or another player (including jewellery or watches). A number of players may be replaced by substitutes during the course of the game. The maximum substitutions permitted in international games and in national level leagues is three, though substitution numbers may be varied in other leagues. The usual reasons for a player's replacement include injury, tiredness, ineffectiveness, a tactical switch, or to waste a little time at the end of a finely poised game. In standard adult matches, a player who has been substituted may not take further part in the match.

Officials

A game is presided over by a referee, who has "full authority to enforce the Laws of the Game in connection with the match to which he has been appointed" (Law 5), and whose decisions regarding facts connected with play are final. The referee is assisted by two assistant referees (formerly called linesmen). In many high-level games there is also a fourth official, who assists the referee and may replace another official should the need arise.

Playing field

fourth official)]] The length of the field (pitch) for international adult matches should be in the range 100-130 yards (90-120m) and the width should be in the range 50-100 yards (45-90m).The pitch must be rectangular, with the length of the touch line longer than the width of the goal line. The longer boundary lines are touch lines, while the shorter boundaries (on which the goals are placed) are goal lines. On the goal line at each end of the field is a goal. The inner edges of the goal posts must be 8 yards (7.32m) apart, and the lower edge of the crossbar must be 8 feet (2.44m) above the ground. Nets are usually placed behind the goal, though are not required by the Laws. In front of each goal is an area of the field known as the penalty area (colloquially "penalty box", "18 yard box" or simply "the box"). This area consists of the area formed by the goal-line, two lines starting on the goal-line 18 yards (16.5m) from the goalposts and extending 18 yards into the pitch from the goal-line, and a line joining these. This area has a number of important functions, the most prominent being to denote where the goalkeeper may handle the ball and where a foul by a defender which would usually punished by a direct free kick becomes punishable by a penalty kick. The field has other field markings and defined areas; these are described in the main article above.

Duration

Standard durations

A standard adult football match consists of two periods (known as halves) of 45 minutes each. There is usually a 15-minute break between halves, known as half time. The end of the match is known as full-time. At the end of each half the referee adds time to account for interruptions during play, such as substitutions, treatment of injuries and time wasting. This addition is traditionally known as injury time.

Extra time and shootouts

If tied at the end of regulation time, in some competitions the game may go into extra time, which consists of two further 15-minute periods. If the score is still tied after extra time, some competitions allow the use of penalty shootouts (known officially in the Laws of the Game as "kicks from the penalty mark") to determine which team will progress to the next stage of the tournament. Note that goals scored during extra time periods count towards the final score of the game, unlike kicks from the penalty mark which are only used to decide the team that progresses to the next part of the tournament (with goals scored not making up part of the final score). Competitions utilising two-leg stages (i.e. where each round involves the two teams playing each other twice) may utilise the so-called away goals rule to attempt to determine which team progresses in the event of the teams being equal on wins; however, should results still be equal following this calculation kicks from the penalty mark are usually required. Other competitions may require a tied game to be replayed.

Golden and silver goal experiments

In the late 1990s, the IFAB experimented with ways of making matches more likely to end without requiring kicks from the penalty mark, which were often seen as an undesirable way to end a match. These involved rules ending a game in extra time early, either when the first goal in extra time was scored (golden goal), or at the end of the first period of extra time if one team was by then leading (silver goal). Both these experiments have been discontinued by IFAB.

Referee as official timekeeper

The referee is the official timekeeper for the match, and it is part of his duties to make allowance for time lost through substitutions, injured players requiring attention, cautions and dismissals, sundry time wasting, etc. When making such an allowance for time lost, the referee is often said to be "adding time on". The amount of time is at the sole discretion of the referee, and the referee alone signals when the match has been completed. There are no other timekeepers, although assistant referees carry a watch and may provide a second opinion if requested by the referee. In matches where a fourth official is appointed, towards the end of the half the referee will signal how many minutes remain to be played, and the fourth official then signals this to players and spectators by holding up a board showing this number. Note that there is often semantic debate as to whether the referee is "adding on" time to the end of a half, or rather treating time during stoppages as though it never existed as part of the match time; this distinction has little bearing on the practical conduct of a game, however it may be noted that the pre-1997 wording of the laws stated that the referee "shall ... allow the full or agreed time adding thereto all time lost through injury or accident" (Law V), and later FIFA guidelines regarding the annotation of goal scoring times suggested that time is indeed "added-on" to the end of the agreed half period.

Starts and re-starts

Each playing period in football commences with a kick-off, which is a set kick from the centre-spot by one team. At kick-off all players are required to be in their half of the field, and all players of the non-kicking team must also remain outside the centre-circle, until the ball is kicked and moved. Kick-offs are also used to restart play following a goal. From the initial kick-off of a period until the end of that period, the ball is "in play" at all times until the end of the playing period, except when the ball leaves the field of play or play is stopped by the referee; in these cases play is re-started by one of the following eight methods: kick-off
- Kick-off: following a goal by the opposing team, or to begin each period of play. ([http://www.fifa.com/en/laws/Laws8_01.htm Law 8]).
- Throw-in: when the ball has wholly crossed the touchline; awarded to opposing team to that which last touched the ball. ([http://www.fifa.com/en/laws/Laws15_01.htm Law 15]).
- Goal kick: when the ball has wholly crossed the goal line without a goal having been scored and having last been touched by an attacker; awarded to defending team. ([http://www.fifa.com/en/laws/Laws16_01.htm Law 16]).
- Corner kick: when the ball has wholly crossed the goal line without a goal having been scored and having last been touched by a defender; awarded to attacking team. ([http://www.fifa.com/en/laws/Laws17_01.htm Law 17]).
- Indirect free kick: awarded to the opposing team following "non-penal" fouls, certain technical infringements, or when play is stopped to caution/send-off an opponent without a specific foul having occurred. ([http://www.fifa.com/en/laws/Laws13_01.htm Law 13]).
- Direct free kick: awarded to fouled team following certain listed "penal" fouls. ([http://www.fifa.com/en/laws/Laws13_01.htm Law 13]).
- Penalty kick: awarded to fouled team following "penal" foul having occurred in their opponent's penalty area. ([http://www.fifa.com/en/laws/Laws14_01.htm Law 14]).
- Dropped-ball: occurs when the referee has stopped play for any other reason (e.g. a serious injury to a player, interference by an external party, or a ball becoming defective). ([http://www.fifa.com/en/laws/Laws8_03.htm Law 8]).

Fouls and misconduct

A foul occurs when a player (not a substitute) commits a specific offence listed in the Laws of the Game, against an opponent, when the ball is in play. The offences that constitute a foul are mainly listed in Law 12. "Penal fouls", for example handling the ball, tripping an opponent, pushing an opponent, etc, are punishable by a direct free kick or penalty kick depending on where the offence occurred. Other fouls are punishable by an indirect free kick. Misconduct may occur at any time, and need not be against an opponent. Substitutes may commit misconduct. Whilst the offences that constitute misconduct are listed, the definitions are broad. In particular, the offence of "unsporting behaviour" may be used to deal with most events that violate the spirit of the game, even if they are not listed as specific offences. Misconduct may be punished by a caution (yellow card) or sending-off (red card).

Offside

The offside law limits the ability of attacking players to remain forward (i.e. closer to the opponent's goal-line) of both the ball and the second last defending player. It is often assumed that the purpose of this law is to prevent "goal scrounging" or "cherry picking", but in fact the offside law has similar roots to the offside law in rugby (see full article). The details and application of this law are complex, and often result in controversy: for more information on offside please refer to the main article above.

Governing bodies

The recognised international governing body of football (and associated games, such as futsal and beach soccer) is the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Six regional confederations are associated with FIFA; these are:
- Asia: Asian Football Confederation (AFC)
- Africa: Confederation of African Football (CAF)
- Central/North America & Caribbean: Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF; also known as The Football Confederation)
- Europe: Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)
- Oceania: Oceania Football Confederation (OFC)
- South America: Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (South American Football Confederation; CONMEBOL) The recognised various national associations (see football around the world) oversee football within their jurisdictions. These are affiliated both with FIFA directly and also with their respective continental confederations. Note that the Laws of the Game are not maintained by FIFA itself; rather they are maintained by the International Football Association Board, as discussed in the history and development section above.

Major international competitions

Worldwide international competitions

The major international competition in football is the World Cup organised by FIFA. This competition takes place over a four-year period. Over 190 national teams compete in regional qualifying tournaments for a place in the finals. The finals tournament, which is held every four years, now involves 32 national teams (increased from 24 in 1998) competing over a four-week period. There has been a football tournament at the Summer Olympic Games since 1900, except at the 1932 games in Los Angeles. Originally this was for amateurs only, however since the 1984 Summer Olympics professionals have been permitted as well, albeit with certain restrictions which effectively prevent countries from fielding their strongest sides Currently, the Olympic men's tournament is played at Under-23 level with a restricted number of over-age players per team; consequently the competition is not generally considered to carry the same international significance and prestige as the World Cup. A women's tournament was added in 1996; in contrast to the men's event, the women's Olympic tournament is played by full international sides without age restrictions. It thus carries international prestige considered comparable to that of the FIFA Women's World Cup.

Major international competitions

The major international competitions of the world and the continental confederations, followed by their major club events where appropriate, are:
- World: FIFA World Cup; FIFA Club World Championship
- Europe: European Championship; UEFA Champions League
- South America: Copa América; Copa Libertadores
- Africa: African Nations Cup; CAF Champions League
- Asia: Asian Cup; AFC Champions League
- North/Central America & Caribbean: CONCACAF Gold Cup; CONCACAF Champions Cup
- Oceania: Oceania Nations Cup; Oceania Club Championship

Names of the game

Oceania Club Championship] The rules of football were codified in England by the Football Association in 1863, and the name association football was coined to distinguish the game from the other forms of football played at the time, specifically rugby football. The term soccer first appeared in the 1880s as a slang abbreviation of Association football. Today the sport is known by a number of names throughout the English-speaking world, the most common being football and soccer; this has generated debate regarding the "correct" name for the sport. The term used depends largely on the need to differentiate the sport from other codes of football followed in a community. Football is the term used by FIFA, the sport's world governing body, and the International Olympic Committee. For more details of naming throughout the world, please refer to the main articles above.

Switzerland

The Swiss Confederation or Switzerland (Latin: Confoederatio Helvetica) is a landlocked federal republic in Europe, bordering Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. The country has a strong tradition of political and military neutrality, but also of international cooperation, and is home to many international organisations. Confoederatio Helvetica is the Latin official name. The use of Latin avoids having to choose one of the four official languages. The abbreviation (CH) is similarly used; for example, it is used as Switzerland's ccTLD, .ch. The Latin title Confoederatio Helvetica means Helvetic Confederation. The titles commonly used in French, Italian and Romansh translate as Swiss Confederation, while the German name of Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft translates roughly as "Swiss Oath Fellowship" or "Swiss Commonwealth of the Covenant".

History

Switzerland is a federation of relatively autonomous cantons, some of which have a history of confederacy that goes back more than 700 years, arguably putting them among the world's oldest surviving republics. According to the popular legend, in 1291, representatives of the three forest cantons of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden signed the Federal Charter. The charter united the involved parties in the struggle against foreign rule by the Habsburgs, who then held the German imperial throne of the Holy Roman Empire. At the Battle of Morgarten on November 15, 1315, the Swiss defeated the Habsburg army and secured quasi-independence as the Swiss Confederation. The authenticity of the Federal Charter is disputed, with many historians agreeing that it is in fact a forgery of the 14th century. By 1353, the three original cantons had been joined by the cantons of Glarus and Zug and the city states of Lucerne, Zürich and Berne, forming the "Old Federation" of eight states that persisted during much of the 15th century (although Zürich was expelled from the confederation during the 1440s due to a territorial conflict) and led to a significant increase of power and wealth of the federation, in particular due to the victories over Charles the Bold of Burgundy during the 1470s, and the success of the Swiss mercenaries. The traditional listing order of the cantons of Switzerland reflects this state, listing the eight "Old Cantons" first, with the city states preceding the founding cantons, followed by cantons that joined the federation after 1481, in historical order. The Swiss victory in a war against the Swabian League in 1499 amounted to de facto independence from the Holy Roman Empire. In 1506, Pope Julius II engaged the Swiss Guard that continues to serve the Vatican to the present day. The expansion of the federation, and the reputation of invincibility acquired during the earlier wars, suffered a first setback in 1515 with the Swiss defeat in the Battle of Marignano. The success of Zwingli's Reformation in some cantons led to inter-cantonal wars in 1529 and 1531 (Kappeler Kriege). The conflict between Catholic and Protestant cantons persisted, erupting in further violence at the battles of Villmergen in 1656 and 1712. 1712] Under the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, European countries recognised Switzerland's independence from the Holy Roman Empire and its neutrality (ancien régime). In 1798, the armies of the French Revolution conquered Switzerland and imposed a new unified constitution. This centralised the government of the country and effectively abolished the cantons. The new regime was known as the Helvetic Republic and was highly unpopular. It had been imposed by a foreign invading army, had destroyed centuries of tradition, including the right to worship, and had made Switzerland nothing more than a French satellite state. Uprisings were common and only the presence of French troops kept them from succeeding. The brutal French suppression of the Nidwalden revolt in September was especially infamous. When war broke out between France and other countries Switzerland found itself being invaded by other outside forces from Austria and Russia. The Swiss were divided mainly between "Republicans" who were in favour of a centralised government, and "Federalists" who wanted to restore autonomy to the cantons. The violent conflict between both sides was never-ending. In Paris in 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte organised a meeting of the leading Swiss politicians from both sides. The result was the Act of Mediation which largely restored Swiss autonomy and introduced a Confederation of 19 Cantons. From then on much of Swiss politics would be about preserving the cantons' right to self-rule and the need for a central government. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 fully re-established Swiss independence and the European powers agreed to permanently recognise the Swiss neutrality. At this time, the territory of Switzerland was increased for the last time, by the new cantons of Valais, Neuchatel and Geneva. In 1847, a civil war broke out between the Catholic and the Protestant cantons (Sonderbundskrieg). Its immediate cause was a 'special treaty' (Sonderbund) of the Catholic cantons. The war lasted for less than a month, causing fewer than 100 casualties. Apart from small riots, this was the latest armed conflict on Swiss territory. As a consequence of the civil war, Switzerland adopted a federal constitution in 1848, amending it extensively in 1874 and establishing federal responsibility for defence, trade, and legal matters. In 1891, the constitution was revised with unusually strong elements of direct democracy, which remains unique even today. Since then, continued political, economic, and social improvement has characterised Swiss history. In 1920, Switzerland joined the League of Nations, and in 1963 the Council of Europe. Switzerland proclaimed neutrality in World War I and was not involved militarily in the conflict. Neutrality was again proclaimed in World War II, and although a German intervention was both planned and anticipated, it ultimately didn't occur. The massive mobilisation of Swiss armed forces under the leadership of General Henri Guisan is often cited as a decisive factor that the German invasion was never initiated. Modern historical findings, such as the research done by the Bergier commission, indicate that another major factor was the continued trade by Swiss banks with Nazi Germany. Bergier commission Women were granted the right to vote in the first cantons in 1959, at the federal level in 1971, in the last canton, Appenzell Innerrhoden, only in 1990. In 1979, parts of the canton of Berne attained independence, forming the new canton of Jura. On April 18, 1999 the Swiss population and the cantons voted in favour of a completely revised federal constitution. In 2002 Switzerland became a full member of the United Nations, leaving the Vatican as the last widely recognised state without full UN membership. Switzerland is not a member state of the EU but applied for membership therein in May 1992. Switzerland has not advanced this application since the rejection, by referendum, of the European Economic Area in December 1992. However, Swiss law is gradually being adjusted to that of the EU and the government has signed a number of bilateral agreements with the European Union. Switzerland (together with Liechtenstein) has been surrounded by the EU since Austria's membership in 1995. On June 5, 2005, Swiss voters agreed, by a 55% majority, to join the Schengen treaty, a result that was welcomed by EU commentators as a sign of goodwill by a Switzerland that is traditionally perceived as isolationist.

Politics

Schengen treaty]] The bicameral Swiss parliament, the Federal Assembly, is the primary seat of power, apart from the Federal Council. Both houses, the Council of States and the National Council, have equal powers in all respects, including the right to introduce legislation. Under the 1999 constitution, cantons hold all powers not specifically delegated to the federation. The 46 members of the Council of States (two from each canton and one from former half cantons) are directly elected in each canton, whereas the 200 members of the National Council are elected directly under a system of proportional representation. Members of both houses serve for 4 years. Through referenda citizens may challenge any law voted by federal parliament and through initiatives introduce amendments to the federal constitution, making Switzerland a semi-direct democracy. The top executive body and collective Head of State is the Federal Council, a collegial body of seven members. Although the constitution provides that the Assembly elects and supervises the members of the Council, the latter (and its administration) has gradually assumed a pre-eminent role in directing the legislative process as well as executing federal laws. The President of the Confederation is elected from the seven to assume special representative functions for a one-year term. From 1959 to December 2003, the four major parties were represented in the Federal Council according to the "magic formula", proportional to their representation in federal parliament: 2 Christian Democrats (CVP/PDC), 2 from the Social Democrats (SPS/PSS), 2 Free Democrats (FDP/PRD), and 1 from the Swiss People's Party (SVP/UDC). This traditional distribution of seats, however, is not backed up by any law, and in the 2003 elections to the Federal Council the CVP/PDC lost their second seat to the SVP/UDC. The function of the Federal Supreme Court is to hear appeals of cantonal courts or the administrative rulings of the federal administration. The judges are elected by the Federal Assembly for six-year terms. See also: International relations of Switzerland

Direct democracy

Switzerland features a system of government not seen at the national level on any other place on earth: Direct democracy. Any citizen may challenge a law that has been passed by parliament. If he is able to gather 50,000 signatures against the law within 100 days, a national vote has to be scheduled where voters decide by a simple majority whether to accept or reject the law. Also, any citizen may seek a decision on an amendment they want to make to the constitution. For such an amendment initiative to be organised, the signatures of 100,000 voters must be collected within 18 months. Such a popular initiative may be formulated as a general proposal or - much more often - be put forward as a precise new text whose wording can no longer be changed by parliament and the government. After a successful vote gathering, the federal council may create a counterproposal to the proposed amendment and put it to vote on the same day. Such counterproposals are usually a compromise between the status quo and the wording of the initiative. Voters will again decide in a national vote whether to accept the initiative amendment, the counterproposal put forward by the government or both. If both are accepted, one has to additionally signal a preference. Initiatives have to be accepted by a double majority of both the popular votes and a majority of the states.

Energy politics

The energy generated in Switzerland comprises around 40 percent nuclear power and 60 percent from hydroelectricity. On May 18, 2003, two referenda regarding the future of nuclear power in Switzerland were held. The referendum Electricity without nuclear asked for a decision on a nuclear power phase-out and Moratorium Plus asked about an extension an existing law forbidding the building of new nuclear power plants. Both were turned down: Moratorium Plus by a margin of 41.6% for and 58.4% opposed, and Electricity Without Nuclear by a margin of 33.7% for and 66.3% opposed. The former ten-year moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power plants was the result of a citizens' initiative voted on in 1990 which had passed with 54.5% Yes vs. 45.5% No votes (see Nuclear power phase-out#Switzerland for details).

Cantons (states)

Nuclear power phase-out#Switzerland]] The Swiss Confederation consists of 26 cantons:
- These cantons are represented by only one councillor in the Council of States. Their populations vary between 15,000 (Appenzell Innerrhoden) and 1,253,500 (Zürich), and their area between 37 km² (Basel-Stadt) and 7,105 km² (Grisons). The Cantons comprise a total of 2,889 municipalities. The following are enclaves within Switzerland: Büsingen is territory of Germany, Campione d'Italia is territory of Italy.

Geography

Italy With an area of 41,285 km², Switzerland is a small country. The population is around 7.4 million, resulting in a population density of 184 people per km². Switzerland comprises three basic topographical areas: the Swiss Alps, the Swiss plateau, and the Jura mountains.The Alps are a high mountain range running across the central-south of the country. Among the high peaks of the Swiss Alps, the highest of which is the Dufour Peak at 4,634 m, are found countless valleys, some with glaciers. From these the headwaters of several major European rivers such as the Rhine, the Rhône, the Inn, the Aare or the Ticino, flow down into lakes such as Lake Geneva, Lake Zürich, Lake Neuchâtel, and Lake Constance. Lake Constance The northern, more populous part of the country is more open, but can still be mountainous, for example, in the Jura Mountains, a smaller range in the northwest. The Swiss climate is generally temperate, but can vary greatly between the localities, from harsh conditions on the high mountains to the often pleasant Mediterranean climate at Switzerland's southern tip. A zoomable map of Switzerland is available at either [http://www.swissinfo-geo.org www.swissinfo-geo.org] or [http://www.swissgeo.ch www.swissgeo.ch]; a zoomable satellite picture is at [http://map.search.ch/ map.search.ch].
See also: Swisstopo topographical survey, List of lakes of Switzerland, List of rivers of Switzerland, List of mountain passes in Switzerland.

Economy

Switzerland is a prosperous and stable modern market economy, with a per capita GDP that is higher than those of the big western European economies. For much of the 20th century Switzerland was the wealthiest country in Europe by a considerable margin. However since the early 1990s it has suffered from slow growth, and as of 2005 it had fallen to fourth among European states with populations above one million in terms of Gross Domestic Product per capita at purchasing power parity, behind Ireland, Denmark and Norway (see list). Switzerland is a member of the European Free Trade Association. In recent years, the Swiss have brought their economic practices largely into conformity with those of the European Union, in an effort to enhance their international competitiveness, but this has not produced strong growth. Full EU membership is a long-term objective of the Swiss government, but there is considerable popular sentiment against this. To this end, it has established an [http://www.europa.admin.ch/e/index.htm Integration Office] under the Department of Foreign and Economic Affairs. To minimise the negative consequences of Switzerland's isolation from the rest of Europe, Bern and Brussels signed seven agreements, called Bilateral Agreements I, to further liberalise trade ties in 1999 and entering into force in 2001. This first series of bilateral agreements included the free movement of persons. A second series covering nine areas was signed in 2004 and awaits ratification. The second series includes the Schengen treaty and the Dublin Convention. They continue to discuss further areas for cooperation. Preparatory discussions are being opened on four new areas: opening up the electricity market, participation in the European GPS system Galileo, cooperating with the European centre for disease prevention and recognising certificates of origin for food products. Switzerland voted against membership in the European Economic Area in December 1992 and has since maintained and developed its relationships with the European Union and European countries through bilateral agreements.
- List of Swiss companies
- Swiss bank

Demographics

Swiss bank (19.2%),
Italian (7.6%),
Romansh (0.6%)]] Switzerland sits at the crossroads of several major European cultures that have heavily influenced the country's languages and culture. Switzerland has three nationwide official languages (German (64%) in the north and centre, French (19%) to the west, and Italian (8%) in the south), plus a fourth national language that is considered official locally (Romansh, a Romance language spoken by a small minority (< 1%) in the southeastern canton of Graubünden and in parts of Ticino). The federal government is obliged to communicate in the three official languages. In the federal parliament, German, French and Italian are the official languages and simultaneous translation is provided. The German spoken in Switzerland is predominantly a group of dialects that are almost unintelligible to Germans and are collectively known as Swiss German, but written communication and broadcasts typically use standard German. Swiss French and Swiss Italian differ far less from their counterparts in France and Italy, respectively. Learning one of the other national languages at school is obligatory for all Swiss, so most Swiss are at least bilingual. English is considered by some as a Swiss lingua franca, and most Swiss people have some command of English; many Swiss documents and websites are available in English. Resident foreigners and temporary foreign workers make up about 20% of the population. The most popular religion in Switzerland is Roman Catholicism (43% of the population). There are various Protestant denominations (35%), while immigration has brought Islam (4%) and Eastern Orthodoxy (2%) as sizeable minority religions. The stability and prosperity of Switzerland, combined with a linguistically diverse population, has led some to describe the country as a consensus, or consociational state.
- List of Swiss people

Culture

List of Swiss people] The culture of Switzerland is influenced by its neighbours, but over the years a distinctive culture with strong regional differences has developed. Traditionally Switzerland is not considered one of the centres of European culture, but this conception might be deceptive. A number of culturally active Swiss have chosen to move abroad, probably given the limited opportunities in their homeland. At the same time, the neutrality of Switzerland has attracted many creative people from all over the world. In war times the tradition of political asylum helped to attract artists, whilst recently low taxes seem predominant. Strong regionalism in Switzerland makes it difficult to speak of a homogeneous Swiss culture. The influence of German, French and Italian culture on their neighbouring parts and the influence of Anglo-American culture cannot be denied. The Rhaeto-Romanic culture in the eastern mountains of Switzerland is robust. The Swiss are noted for their banks, their chocolate, their cheese, their pocket knives, their watches (particularly the famous Rolex), their private boarding schools and their strengths in engineering and the sciences. The tallest building in Switzerland is the Basler Messeturm.
- Music of Switzerland
- Culture of Switzerland
- Swiss cuisine
- SRG SSR idée suisse

External links

- Governmental websites
- [http://www.admin.ch/ch/index.en.html The Federal Authorities]
- [http://www.parlament.ch/e/homepage.htm The Swiss Parliament]
- [http://www.bger.ch/ Federal Supreme Court] - (in German, French and Italian)
- [http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/en/ Swiss Federal Statistical Office]
- [http://www.swissinfo.org/ Switzerland's news and information platform] - maintained by the public Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (in 9 languages)
- Historical Dictionary of Switzerland: [http://www.dhs.ch www.dhs.ch] - Country encyclopedia (in German, French and Italian)
- [http://www.swissworld.org/ Swissworld] - an encyclopedic presentation of the country by the Swiss Confederation
- [http://www.about.ch/ About.ch] - another presentation of the country
- [http://www.myswitzerland.com/ Switzerland Tourism] National tourist office
- [http://www.culturelinks.ch/ Culturelinks.ch] - a portal giving access to Swiss culture websites
- [http://www.are.ch/ Spatial Planning in Switzerland] Website of Swiss Federal Office for Spatial Development (land-use planning, transportation, sustainable development)
- [http://map.search.ch/ Map.Search.ch] Maps of Switzerland
- [http://www.justlanded.com/english/switzerland/ Just Landed Switzerland] - Useful info for moving to Switzerland
- Alemannic Wikipedia
- Category:Landlocked countries als:Schweiz zh-min-nan:Sūi-se ko:스위스 ms:Switzerland ja:スイス simple:Switzerland th:ประเทศสวิตเซอร์แลนด์

List of FIFA presidents

Presidents of the FIFA:
- Sepp Blatter, Switzerland, elected June 8 1998
- João Havelange, Brazil, 1974-1998, Honorary President of FIFA nominated June 8 1998
- Sir Stanley Rous, England, 1961-1974, Honorary President of FIFA nominated June 11 1974
- Arthur Drewry, England, 1955-1961
- Rodolphe Seeldrayers, Belgium, 1954-1955
- Jules Rimet, France, 1921-1954, Honorary President of FIFA nominated June 21 1954
- Daniel Burley Woolfall, England, 1906-1918
- Robert Guérin, France, 1904-1906 Presidents of FIFA List of Presidents of FIFA

Sepp Blatter

Joseph 'Sepp' Blatter (born March 10, 1936 in Visp, Wallis, Switzerland) was elected president of FIFA on June 8, 1998, succeeding Dr. João Havelange (Brazil).

Education

Born in the Swiss town of Visp, he graduated from the Sion and St. Maurice colleges in Switzerland before gaining a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration and Economics from the Faculty of Law at Lausanne University.

Career

His long and varied career curriculum involves posts like Head of Public Relations of the Valaisan Tourist Board in his native Switzerland, General Secretary of the Swiss Ice Hockey Federation; as Director of Sports Timing and Public Relations of Longines S.A he was involved in the organization of the 1972 and 1976 Olympic Games. Since 1975 he has been working at FIFA as Technical Director (1975-1981), and General Secretary (1981-1998). His election and victory over UEFA President Lennart Johansson were marked with controversy. His incumbency has been marked with rumors of financial irregularities and backroom dealings, culminating in 2002 with direct accusations of bribery made in the press by the Somali FA member Farra Ado of an offer of $100,000 to vote for Blatter. Although Blatter was re-elected in 2002 and remains in his post (as of October 2005), many questions regarding his integrity remain unanswered.

Criticism

Blatter has made many changes to football since he was elected president of FIFA which fans of the sport do not always want to see. Some controversial topics revolving around Blatter include:
- His personal desire to see the World Cup finals held in an African country. More than once, he has explicitly stated this preference and encouraged African countries to bid for the event. South Africa narrowly lost the 2006 event to Germany, and has now been awarded the 2010 event.
- The "silver goal" replaced the "golden goal" rule in extra time of play-off matches. Under the "golden goal" rule, the match ends immediately if one side scores in extra time. The "silver goal" rule, however, states that the match will go on until the end of the extra time period. Many fans opposed the new rule, arguing that this makes the match less exciting. The rule was first applied in the Euro 2004 competition, but now it has been discontinued (along with golden goal) and all competitions have reverted to the old rules (they must play the full amount of extra time no matter how many goals are scored).
- A rule change in World Cup 2002 (the 17th World Cup) which makes the current World Cup champion not automatically qualified for the next World Cup finals. Champions of all the 16 previous World Cup were automatically given a place in the next World Cup finals. The first exempted team was Brazil, the World Cup 2002 champion. Blatter's presidency has also earned him many critics who deplore what they see as a dictatorial administration. Blatter has frequently imposed and/or threatened to impose harsh sanctions against players, officials, clubs and even national associations who commit what some see as very minor transgressions. For example, Blatter once intimated that Manchester United would be expelled from the game entirely if they appealed Rio Ferdinand's drug suspension in a court of law, and has threatened to suspend national associations who do not meticulously enforce the Laws of the Game. On the other hand, Blatter has also earned the praise of many people who see him as a president who has stood firm against the game's richest clubs and ensured that the interests of national associations and teams - especially those of poorer nations - are not compromised by commercial interests.

External links

- [http://www.fifa.com/en/organisation/presidentsection/0,1525,1,00.html FIFA President's page on official website of FIFA] Blatter, Sepp Blatter, Sepp Blatter, Sepp

History of FIFA

FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) was founded on May 21, 1904, uniting the Football Associations of France, Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. International matches had been played earlier in the century, and the Football Association had discussed the possibility of an overarching football organization without reaching any agreement. Robert Guérin, a journalist with Matin, wrote to each of the continental Football Associations. At a match between France and Belgium in Brussels on 1 May 1904, the secretaries concluded that England would not participate under its current President, Lord Kinnaird. Guérin made formal approaches to the others, and on May 21 the first FIFA Statutes were signed. These included: #Only the represented National Associations would be recognised #Clubs and players could only play for one National Association at a time #All Associations would recognise the suspension of a player in any one Association #Matches to be played according to the "Laws of the Game of the Football Association Ltd" #Each National Association to pay an annual fee of 50 French Francs. #Only FIFA could organise International Matches These statutes came into effect on 1 September - Germany had also joined by Telegram. The first FIFA Congress was held on 23 May - Robert Guérin was elected President, Victor E. Schneider of Switzerland and Carl Anton Wilhelm Hirschmann of the Netherlands were made Vice Presidents, and Louis Muhlinghaus of Belgium was appointed Secretary and Treasurer with the help of Ludvig Sylow of Denmark. England joined on 14 April 1905, thanks to great efforts by Baron Edouard de Laveyeye who was made the first honorary member of FIFA. Austria, Italy and Hungary had joined by the time of the second Congress on 10 June 1905, and Scotland, Wales and Ireland were not far behind. As the French Football Association became split up internally, Guérin handed over the administration of FIFA to Schneider and André Espir. At the 1906 Congress Daniel Burley Woolfall of England was elected President. He was a pragmatic and very experienced man and made great strides towards uniformity of the laws of the Game. During the 1908 Olympic Games in London, FIFA organised a major international tournament, and a second took place in Stockholm in 1912. England won both tournaments, but there were problems (such as the presence of professional players). In 1909 South Africa, the first non-European member joined, and Argentina and Chile followed in 1912 and the USA in 1913. World War I then intervened; some International Matches were played, but with difficulty; President Woolfall died in 1918. It was Hirschmann, almost acting alone, who kept FIFA alive, and in 1919 convened an assembly in Brussels. However, the British Associations were not very interested in re-establishing ties with former enemies. Another meeting was held in Antwerp in 1920, where Jules Rimet of France was elected Chairman, Louis Oestrup of Denmark Deputy Chairman, and Hirschmann as Honorary Secretary. Jules Rimet became the third President on 1 March 1921 at the age of 48. FIFA organised the International Tournament at the Olympics of 1924 - with all amateurs. It was a great success, even though the British Associations continued to stay away; 60,000 spectators watched the final between Uruguay and Switzerland. Four years later saw an all South American final between Uruguay and Argentina. These successes prompted FIFA, at the Amsterdam congress of 28 May 1928, to consider staging its own World Championship. At the following Congress in Barcelona plans were finalised - it would be held in Uruguay, which was celebrating its 100th anniversary of independence the following year. Unfortunately, Europe was in the midst of an economic crisis, and teams would have to do without their key players for two months - several nations pulled out. Without them, the first World Cup opened in Montevideo on 18 July 1930 - with only four European teams. Italy was chosen as the venue for the next World Cup. A qualifying round reduced the teams to 16 finalists. The home team beat Czechoslovakia in the final, the first one to be broadcast live on radio. Four years later the World Cup was held in Jules Rimet’s home country, France. Austria, Uruguay and Argentina withdrew and were replaced by Cuba and the Dutch East Indies - Italy successfully defended the title. The next World Cup did not take place until after the Second World War, in Brazil in 1950 - it was renamed the Jules Rimet trophy. In 1946 the four British nations returned. On 10 May 1947 a 'Match of the Century' between Great Britain and 'Rest of Europe XI' was played at Hampden Park in Glasgow before 135,000 spectators - Britain won 6-1. The proceeds from the match were given to FIFA, which was in severe financial difficulties at the time. At the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland, Jules Rimet retired after presenting the Cup to Germany’s captain Fritz Walter. He was replaced by Rodolphe William Seeldrayers of Belgium who celebrated FIFA’s 50th anniversary, at which time it had 85 members. He died the next year and was succeeded by Englishman, Arthur Drewry who died in 1961. Sir Stanley Rous was elected the 6th President of FIFA. He had been a referee in his youth and was very experienced in the international game. He presided over England’s win in 1966. The popularity of the World Cup grew during his popular presidency, helped by the advent of television. He retired in 1974, when Brazilian, João Havelange took over. He transformed the rather staid organisation into a dynamic enterprise brimming with new ideas. For the 1982 World Cup in Spain, he increased the number of finalists to 24, and then to 32 in the 1998 World Cup in France. Under his diplomacy, North and South Korea sent a joint team to the 1991 Youth Championship in Portugal, and Israel began competing internationally. On 8 June 1998 Sepp Blatter of Switzerland was elected the current President. He is committed to serving football, FIFA and the world’s youth.

External links

- [http://www.fifa.com/en/history/history/0,3504,4,00.html Official History Website] Category:FIFA

The Football Association

The Football Association (The FA) is the governing body of football in England (and the Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man).

Overview

The FA was established in 1863 and is the oldest football association in the world. It was instrumental in formulating the rules of the modern game and has a special place in the history of the sport. It is a member of UEFA and FIFA, and holds a permanent seat on the International Football Association Board (IFAB). All of England's professional football clubs must be members of the Football Association. The FA is responsible for the appointment of the management of the England men's and women's national teams, the organization of the FA Cup, the nation's most prestigious cup competion, and is the governing body of the FA Premier League (England's second tier league, The Football League (consisting of The Championship, League One and League Two), is self-governing). The FA plays a major role in the development of English football at the grass roots level, through its continuing support of the amateur game, and organizes the National League System. Unlike other national football associations, it does not take the national name (i.e.'English') in its title (compare with Scottish Football Association, for example)

History

Prior to the first meeting of the Football Association in the Freemason's Tavern in Great Queen Street, London on 26 October 1863, there were no universally accepted rules for the playing of the game of football. The founder members present at the first meeting were Barnes, WO (War Office) Club, Crusaders, Forest of Leytonstone (later to become Wanderers) , N.N. (No Names) Club (Kilburn), Crystal Palace (no relation to Crystal Palace F.C.), Blackheath F.C., Percival House (Blackheath), Surbiton and Blackheath Proprietary School; Charterhouse sent an observer but declined the offer to join. The first revision of the rules for the modern game was drawn up over a series of six meetings held in the social room of the public house from October till December. At the final meeting, the first FA treasurer who was the representative from Blackheath, withdrew his club from the FA over the removal of two draft rules at the previous meeting, the first which allowed for the running with the ball in hand and the second, obstructing such a run by hacking (kicking an opponent in the shins), tripping and holding. Other English rugby clubs followed this lead and did not join the FA but instead in 1871 formed the Rugby Football Union. An inaugural game using the new FA rules was initially scheduled for Battersea Park on 2 January 1864, but enthusiastic members of the FA couldn't wait for the new year and an experimental game was played at Mortlake on 19 December 1863 between Morley's Barnes team and their neighbours Richmond (who were not members of the FA), ending in a goalless draw. The Richmond side were obviously unimpressed by the new rules in practice because they subsequently helped form the RFU in 1871. The Battersea Park game was postponed for a week and the first exhibition game using FA rules was played there on Saturday 9 January 1864. The members of the opposing teams for this game were chosen by the President of the FA (A. Pember) and the Secretary (E. C. Morley) and included many well-known footballers of the day.

Competitions

The FA also runs several competitions:
- FA Challenge Cup
- FA Trophy
- FA Vase
- FA Women's Cup
- FA Youth Cup
- FA Sunday Cup
- FA County Youth Cup
- FA Community Shield
- FA National League System Cup
- FA Futsal Cup

Principals of the Football Association

References

- Green, Geoffrey (1954) History of the Football Association, Naldrett Press
- Butler, B. (1991). The official history of the Football Association, Queen Anne Press, ISBN 0356191451

External link

- [http://www.thefa.com/ The FA official site]
- [http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,1563,1519706,00.html Tom Bower Has the Blazer Brigade doomed football? Guardian July 2, 2005] Football Association, The Football, England Football Association, The ja:イングランドサッカー協会

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city of France. Located on the river Seine in the country's north, it is a major cultural and political centre of Europe and the world's most visited city. The area's first inhabitants, a Celtic tribe named the "Parisii" give Paris its name. Its eponym, "the City of Lights" (la Ville Lumière), dates from 1828 when it became the first city in Europe to light its main boulevards with gas street lamps along its Champs-Élysées. The city of Paris is also widely referred to as the "most romantic city in the world." As a cultural and political centre for Europe since the early Middle Ages, Paris preserves many vestiges of its past. While hosting numerous art galleries, museums and theatres, it has grown into a significant centre of international trade with ever-growing modern business districts, including La Défense, the de facto city centre built for the purpose. In addition to the head offices of nearly half of all France's companies and the offices of many major international firms, Paris hosts the headquarters of many international trade and social organisations, including the OECD and UNESCO. The city of Paris proper has 2.1 million inhabitants , but its centre of influence extends to cover a "Greater Paris" metropolitan area that has a population of 11.1 million , over one sixth of the French population. Paris is the third largest metropolitan area in Europe (after Moscow and London), and approximately the 22nd most populous metropolitan area in the world. Paris is also the centre of an economic network that, within the limits of its Île-de-France région (of which it is also the capital), with a GDP of nearly €450 billion , is alone the producer of over one quarter of France's wealth. Because of its financial, business, political, and tourism activities, Paris today is one of the world's major transport destinations. Along with New York, London and Tokyo, it is often listed as one of the four major global cities.

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Name of Paris and its Inhabitants

Paris is pronounced (RP) or in English, and Image:ltspkr.png in French. The original Latin name of Paris was Lutetia (), or Lutetia Parisiorum, known in French as Lutèce (). Lutetia was later dropped in favor of only Paris, based on the name of the Gallic Parisi tribe, whose name perhaps comes from the Celtic Gallic word parios, meaning "caldron", but this is not certain. Traditionally, Paris was known as Paname () in French slang, but this vulgar appellation is gradually losing currency. (.) The inhabitants of Paris are known as Parisians in English, as Parisiens (Image:ltspkr.png ) in French. The pejorative term Parigot (Image:ltspkr.png ) is sometimes used in French slang. Locally, inhabitants of the Paris suburbs are known as banlieusards (Image:ltspkr.png ). Inhabitants of the whole Paris metropolitan area are known as Franciliens (Image:ltspkr.png ), i.e. from Île-de-France.

Geography

Coordinates

Paris is located at (48.866667, 2.333056). The city straddles a north-bending arc of the river Seine. This waterway is dotted with a few islands along its path through the city, and the largest and most central of these, the Île de la Cité, is the Capital's heart and origin.

Area

The city (commune) of Paris proper has an area of 105.398 km² (40.69 mi², or 26,044 acres). Excluding the outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, the actual area of the city is only 86.928 km² (33.56 mi², or 21,480 acres), being in the form of an almost regular oval, with a circumference of 35.5 km (22 miles). This oval extends 9.5 km (6 miles) from north to south, and 11 km (7 miles) from east to west. circumference This is not a very large area, and in fact the commune of Paris is only the 113th largest commune of France (out of 36,782 communes). By comparison, Greater London has an area of 1,572 km² (607 mi²), and New York City has an area of 786 km² (303 mi²). This peculiar fact arises because, unlike other large western cities such as New York, London, or Berlin, whose territories were enlarged in the 20th century, the borders of Paris have not been changed since 1860 when Napoleon III and the prefect Haussmann annexed the then suburban communes surrounding Paris, such as Montmartre and Auteuil, more than doubling the the city's area to 78 km² (30.1 mi²), and creating the 20 arrondissements of Paris. Since 1860, the limits of Paris have only marginally changed, reaching the 86.9 km² figure indicated above. In 1929, the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes were officially incorporated into the city of Paris. Thus, the Brooklyn, Greenwich, or Charlottenburg of Paris are still outside the city of Paris proper, and it can be more accurately compared to the borough of Manhattan (59.5 km²/23 mi²) or to Inner London (319 km²/123 mi²). Even the largest business and financial district of Paris, known as La Défense, is outside the city boundary. The urban area (unité urbaine) of Paris, i.e. the contiguous built-up area, extends past the administrative city limits to cover 2,723 km² (1,051.4 mi²) (INSEE 1999), or an area about 26 times larger than the city itself. The metropolitan area (aire urbaine) of Paris, i.e. the built-up area plus the commuter belt, reaches in part beyond the surrounding Île-de-France administative région to cover 14,518 km² (5,605.5 mi²) (INSEE 1999), or an area 138 times larger than the city of Paris. région]]

Altitude

The altitude of Paris varies, with several prominent hills, of which the highest is Montmartre at 130m about sea level. The highest elevation in the urban area of Paris is in the Forest of Montmorency (Val-d'Oise département), 19.5 km. (12 miles) north-northwest of the center of Paris as the crow flies, at 195 metres (640 ft) above sea-level.

Temperatures

The lowest temperature recorded in central Paris (since 1873) was –23.9 °C (–11.0 °F) and –25.6 °C (–14.1 °F) in the southeastern suburb of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés on December 10, 1879 . The highest temperature was recorded on July 28, 1947 when the temperature in central Paris (Parc Montsouris) reached 40.4 °C (104.7 °F). During the European heat wave of 2003, which caused the death of many elderly people in France, the temperature in central Paris reached 38.1 °C (100.6 °F) (Parc Montsouris) and 40.2 °C (104.4 °F) at Le Bourget Airport in the northern suburbs. A record high night-time minimum of 25.5 °C (77.9 °F) in Parc Montsouris was set on August 11 and August 12, 2003.

History

Paris was occupied by a Gallic tribe until the Romans arrived in 52 BC. The invaders referred to the previous occupants as the Parisii, but called their new city Lutetia, meaning "marshy place". About 50 years later the city had spread to the left bank of the Seine, now known as the Latin Quarter (Le Quartier latin), and was renamed "Paris". Roman rule had ceased by 508, when Clovis the Frank made the city the capital of the Merovingian dynasty of the Franks. In 845, Paris was sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collected a huge ransom in exchange for leaving. Thereafter the weakness of the late Carolingian kings of France led to the gradual rise in power of the Counts of Paris; Odo, Count of Paris was elected king of France by feudal lords while Charles III was also claiming the throne. Finally, in 987 Hugh Capet, count of Paris, was elected king of France by the great feudal lords after the last Carolingian king died. Hugh Capet, 1789]] In the 12th and 13th centuries the city grew strongly. Main thoroughfares were paved, the first Louvre was built as a fortress, and several churches, including the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, were constructed or begun. Several schools on the Left Bank were grouped together into the Sorbonne, which counts Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas Aquinas among its early scholars. In the Middle Ages, Paris prospered as a trading and intellectual nucleus, interrupted temporarily when the Black Death struck in the 14th century, and again in the 15th century when urban revolts drove the royal court to abandon the city for almost 100 years. In the 18th century, the royal residence was moved from Paris to nearby Versailles. The French Revolution began with the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789. From the establishment of the French Second Empire in 1852 until 1914, Paris experienced the largest development in its history. The famous Parisian Haussmann Style dates back to this period, during which much of the Paris known today was planned and constructed. For the World's Fair of 1889 which commemorated the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution, the Eiffel Tower was built, the best-known landmark in Paris and tallest structure in the world until 1930. The large scale display of electricity and light bulbs at the world's fairs of 1889 and 1900, which was a first in the world, earned Paris the nickname "City of Lights". During World War I, Paris was at the forefront of the war effort, having been spared invasion by the German Army due to the French and English victory at the First Battle of the Marne in 1914. In the Interwar period, Paris was famed for its cultural and artistic life, as well as its nightlife. From Russian exiled artists fleeing the Bolsheviks (such as composer Igor Stravinsky), to Spanish painters (such as Picasso or Dalí), to US writers (such as Hemingway), Paris became a melting pot of artists from all around the world. In June 1940, five weeks after the start of the German attack on France, a partially-evauated Paris fell to German occupation forces, who remained there until late August 1944. Paris was fortunate to be the one of the few large cities in Europe that suffered almost no destruction from the war, preserving its 19th century architecture intact. In the post-war period, Paris experienced its largest development since the end of the Belle Époque in 1914. The suburbs around the city proper (commune) of Paris began to expand considerably, with the construction of large social estates known as cités and the beginning of the business district La Défense. In the late 1960s, the Tour Montparnasse, a large, modern skyscraper, was built just south of the Jardin du Luxembourg. Its controversial height and location sparked immediate changes in zoning and administrative rules that now restrict skyscrapers to La Défense. Since the mid-1980s, there has been periodic unrest, sometimes degenerating into riots, in the poor immigrant neighbourhoods of the outer suburbs of Paris, especially in the cités, which have gradually become ghettos. In late 2005 a wave of riots erupted in the Paris suburbs, with thousands of cars and tens of public buildings burnt.

Demographics

wave of riots erupted in the Paris suburbs.]]

Density

At the 1999 French census the population density in the city of Paris was 20,164 inh. per km² (52,225 inh. per sq. mile). Excluding the outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, the density in the city was actually 24,448 inh. per km² (63,321 inh. per sq. mile). As a matter of comparison, the density in Manhattan at the 2000 US census was 25,846 inh. per km² (66,940 inh. per sq. mile), and the density in Inner London at the 2001 UK census was 8,663 inh. per km² (22,438 inh. per sq. mile). The population density in the city of Paris is very high compared to those of most western cities, which are rarely as crowded as Paris (except for Manhattan). The density in Paris is comparable to the densities met within Asian cities. In many western cities, people have left the city center in the 20th century to relocate to the distant suburbs, leaving the city center as a business district dead at night. Although the city of Paris has also experienced a decline in population since the 1920s, it has nonetheless seen fewer inhabitants relocating to the suburbs than has occurred in other western cities. More precisely, people relocating to the suburbs were for the most part replaced by new people attracted to an urban lifestyle, and buildings were not converted into offices as systematically as has happened elsewhere, such as in London where the inhabitants have left the city center since the Second World War, and the density of Inner London is now much lower than that of Paris. This is most striking in the medieval heart of both metropolises: the City of London and the four first arrondissements of Paris were the medieval heart of each metropolis, with densities reaching 75,000 to 100,000 inh. per km² before the Industrial Revolution. Today, the City of London is almost empty, with a population density of only 2,478 inh. per km² (6,417 inh. per sq. mile) in 2001, whereas the four first arrondissements of Paris still have a density of 18,139 inh. per km² (46,979 inh. per sq. mile) in 1999, seven times more dense than in the City of London. Today, the most crowded arrondissement in the city of Paris is the 11th arrondissement, with a density reaching 40,672 inh. per km² (105,339 inh. per sq. mile) in 1999. Some neighborhoods in the east of this arrondissement are known to have densities of almost 100,000 inh. per km² (260,000 inh. per sq. mile).

Population Growth

At the 1999 census, the population of the city of Paris (excluding suburbs) was 2,125,246. The population of the metropolitan area of Paris was 11,174,743. Historically, the population of the city of Paris peaked in 1921, when it reached 2.9 million. However, there has been since then a movement toward living in suburbs, as well as the gentrification of many areas of inner Paris, and the use of available space for offices rather than dwellings, although this phenomenon was not as massive as happened in London or in American cities. These tendencies are controversial, and the current city administration is trying to reverse them. As a matter of fact, as of February 2004 estimates, the population of the city reached 2,142,800 inhabitants, increasing for the first time since 1954. As for the metropolitan area, it reached approximately 11.5 million inhabitants in 2004, growing twice as fast in the 2000s as it did in the 1990s. The metropolitan area of Paris has been in continuous expansion since the end of the French Wars of Religion at the end of the 16th century (with only brief setbacks during the French Revolution and World War II). As can be seen from the figures, only 18.5% of the inhabitants of the metropolitan area of Paris live inside the city of Paris, while 81.5% live in the suburbs. Visitors to Paris, who mostly stay inside the city, are usually not aware that 81.5% of "Parisians" actually live outside of the city itself, in its very extended suburbs. A majority of Parisians also work outside of the city proper: at the 1999 census, there were 5,089,179 jobs in the metropolitan area of Paris, 32.5% of which were located in the city of Paris proper, while 67.5% were located outside of the city. These peculiar facts are due to the conservativeness of French administrative limits (see Geography section above). For comparisons, in the metropolitan area of London, approximately 60% of people live inside Greater London proper (2001 census), while in the New York-Newark-Bridgeport metropolitan area, 37.8% of people live inside New York City (2000 census). Even in the Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County metropolitan area, 22.6% of people live inside the city of Los Angeles proper. Paris can be more rightly compared to the San Francisco Bay Area, where only 11% of inhabitants live inside the city of San Francisco proper. However, unlike in the San Francisco Bay Area, there is no city inside the metropolitan area of Paris that rivals Paris, the largest city (commune) after Paris being Boulogne-Billancourt, with only 108,300 inhabitants in 2004. :See also: Historical population tables

Muséification

As a result, a so-called "muséification" (museumification) of the city of Paris is feared. Already, all airports, the largest financial and business district (La Défense), the main food wholesale market (Rungis), major renowned schools (École Polytechnique, HEC, ESSEC, INSEAD, etc.), research laboratories (in Saclay or Évry), the largest sport stadium (Stade de France), and even some ministries (Ministry of Transportation) are now located outside of the city of Paris. Similarly, the National Archives of France are due to relocate to the northern suburbs before 2010. It is feared that the city of Paris is turning into a museum for tourists and Amélie nostalgists, while the real economic activity and 21st century development take place elsewhere in the metropolitan area. With some of the most stringent protection laws in the world, it is virtually impossible to build new buildings inside the city. Recent proposals by Paris' new mayor, Bertrand Delanoë to gather renowned architects to build skyscrapers on the outskirts of the city center, have been met with strong opposition on all sides. Delanoë wished to scrap the building height limit dating back to Haussmann in the 19th century, and build upwards to compensate for the lack of space on the ground, as was done in Manhattan. The project also aimed to revitalise Paris in the 21st century, rivaling world cities like Shanghai, or even London where city planners have started building aesthetically acclaimed skyscrapers inside the City. The probable failure of the project may be seen as another sign of the "muséification" of the city of Paris.

Immigration

The metropolitan area of Paris is one of the most multi-cultural in Europe. At the 1999 census, 19.4% of the total population of the metropolitan area were born outside of metropolitan France. As a comparison: at the 2001 UK census, 19.5% of the total population of the metropolitan area of London was born outside of the (metropolitan) United Kingdom, while at the 2000 US census 27.5% of the total population of the New York-Newark-Bridgeport metropolitan area was born outside of the United States (50 states), and 31.9% of the total population of the Los Angeles-Riverside-Orange County metropolitan area was born outside of the United States (50 states). Still at the 1999 French census, 4.2% of the total population of the metropolitan area of Paris were recent migrants (i.e. people who were not living in France in 1990). The most recent immigrants to Paris come essentially from mainland China and from Africa.

Economy

. See main article for references concerning the figures cited here.
Size
Africa The metropolitan area of Paris is one of the engines of the global economy. In 2003 the GDP of the metropolitan area of Paris as calculated by INSEE and Eurostat was €448,933 million, or US$506.7 billion (at real exchange rates, not at PPP). If it were a country, the metropolitan area of Paris would be the 15th largest economy in the world (as of 2003), above Brazil (US$492.3 billion) and Russia (US$432.9 billion). Year in, year out, the metropolitan area of Paris accounts for about 29% of the total GDP of metropolitan France, although its population is only 18.7% of the total population of metropolitan France (as of 2004). In 2002, according to Eurostat, the GDP of the metropolitan area of Paris accounted alone for 4.5% of the total GDP of the European Union (of 25 members), although its population is only 2.45% of the total population of the EU25. Although in terms of population the Paris metropolitan area is only approximately the 20th largest metropolitan area in the world, its GDP is the sixth largest in the world after the metropolitan areas of Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, London and Osaka. At the 1999 census there were 5,089,170 persons employed in the metropolitan area of Paris, 31.5% of whom worked inside the city of Paris proper and 16% in the Hauts-de-Seine (92) département, home of the new La Défense business district, to the west of the city proper, while the remaining 52.5% worked in the suburbs.
Economic sectors
The economy of Paris is extremely diverse and has not yet adopted a specialization inside the global economy (unlike Los Angeles with the entertainment industry, or London with financial services). The tourism industry, for instance, employs only 3.6% of the total workforce of the metropolitan area (as of 1999) and is by no means a major component of the economy. The Paris economy is essentially a service economy. Its manufacturing base is still important, the Paris metropolitan area remaining one of the manufacturing powerhouses of Europe, but it is declining, while there is a clear shift of the Paris economy towards high value-added services, in particular services. Reflecting the diversity of the Paris economy, at the 1999 census 16.5% of the 5,089,170 persons employed in the metropolitan area worked in business services, 13.0% in commerce (retail and wholesale trade), 12.3% in manufacturing, 10.0% in public administrations and defense, 8.7% in health services, 8.2% in transportation and communications, 6.6% in education, and the remaining 24.7% in many other economic sectors. Among the manufacturing sector, the largest employers were the electronic and electrical industry (17.9% of the total manufacturing workforce in 1999) and the publishing and printing industry (14.0% of the total manufacturing workforce), the remaining 68.1% of the manufacturing workforce being distributed among many other industries.
Administration
printing Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements, numbered in a clockwise spiral outwards from the Ier arrondissement at the center of the city. Two parks on the edge of the city proper, Bois de Boulogne on the west and Bois de Vincennes on the east, belong to the 16th and 12th arrondissements respectively. Citizens of each arrondissement elect a local council, which in turn elects the mayor of the arrondissement. A selection of members from each arrondissement council form the Council of Paris, which itself has the dual function of being council for the Paris municipality and for Paris as a départment. The Council of Paris elects the mayor of Paris. mayor of Paris mayor of Paris has been the Mayor of Paris since March 18, 2001]] It must be noted that modern Paris had no Mayor before 1977. Paris in fact has yet to completely emerge from the "prefecture" administrative system created by Bonaparte in 1800; its laws are still governed by its State-appointed Prefecture of Police (as is its Fire Brigade) and has no municipal police force, although it does have its own traffic wardens. The city of Paris also has other jurisdictional titles: it is a commune and also a département. As a département, until 1968 it stretched beyond its city limits as a Département 75 (or Seine département) to include its immediate suburbs, but that year it was split into four: Paris proper (75) became a smaller département, and in a ring around it three others were created: (Hauts-de-Seine (92), Seine-Saint-Denis (93) and Val-de-Marne (94)). Returning to the Prefecture of Police jurisdiction, it still governs Paris and its closest départements as a unique "Prefecture de Paris". From 1986 Paris became the capital of an Île-de-France région of eight départements: itself as a département, the three abovementioned départements and a yet larger concentric circle of four much larger départements. The three inner département are generally called "la petite couronne", or "small crown", and the outer and larger four "la grande couronne". The Île-de-France région has its own administration, as well as each of the départements in the petite couronne and grande couronne. : See also: Paris mayors (comprehensive list)
Transport
Paris mayors Paris mayors Paris is served by two principal airports: Orly Airport, which is south of Paris, and the Charles De Gaulle International Airport in nearby Roissy-en-France. A third and much smaller airport, at the town of Beauvais, 70 km (45 mi) to the north of the city, is used by charter and low-cost airlines. Le Bourget airport nowadays only hosts business jets, air trade shows and the aerospace museum. Paris is a central hub of the national rail network of very fast (TGV) and normal (Corail) trains, which interconnects with a high-speed regional network, the RER. Six major railway stations, Gare du Nord, Gare Montparnasse, Gare de l'Est, Gare de Lyon, Gare d'Austerlitz, and Gare Saint-Lazare connect this train network to the world famous and highly efficient underground metro system, the Métro. This latter is a network of 380 stations (more than the London Underground) connected by 221.6km of rails There are two tangential tramway lines in the suburbs: Line T1 runs from Saint-Denis to Noisy-le-Sec, line T2 runs from La Défense to Issy. A third line along the southern inner orbital road is currently under construction. Administratively speaking, the public transportation networks of the Paris region are coordinated by the Syndicat des transports d'Île-de-France (STIF), formerly Syndicat des transports parisiens (STP). [http://www.stif-idf.fr/ official site] Members of the syndicate include the RATP, which operates the Parisian and some suburban busses, the Métro, and sections of the RER; the SNCF, which operates the rest of the RER and the suburban train lines; and other operators. The city is also the hub of France's motorway network, and is surrounded by an orbital road, the Périphérique, which roughly follows the path of final, 19th-century fortifications around Paris. On/off ramps of the Périphérique are called 'Portes', as they correspond to the former city gates in these fortifications. Most of these 'Portes' have parking areas and a metro station, where non-residents are advised to leave cars. Traffic in Paris is notoriously heavy, slow and tiresome. :See also: Transport in France
Cultural Centres and Organisations
Transport in France Transport in France basilica on Montmartre.]]
Monuments and Landmarks
The three most famous landmarks of Paris are almost certainly the Eiffel Tower, originally a "temporary" construction for the 1889 Universal Expositon, the Arc de Triomphe, commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte and the cathedral Notre Dame de Paris, a 12th-century ecclesiastical masterpiece. Other than the Eiffel Tower, the lone skyscraper Tour Montparnasse and Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on the hill Montmartre are easily visible from many locations around the city, while the window-shaped Grande Arche in La Défense marks the west.

Museums
Paris landmarks's most famous treasures.]]
- Louvre - a huge museum housing many works of art, including the Mona Lisa (La Joconde) and the Venus de Milo statue.
- Musée d'Orsay - an art museum housed in a converted 19th century railway station, which contains mainly Impressionist works.
- Centre Georges Pompidou, also known as Beaubourg - houses the Musée National d'Art Moderne and a cultural center with a large public library. Famous for its external skeleton of service pipes.
- Musée Rodin - a large collection of works by France's most famous sculptor
- Musée du Montparnasse in the former residence of artist Marie Vassilieff at 21 Avenue du Maine, details the history of the great artistic community of Montparnasse.
- Musée Cluny, also known as the Musée National du Moyen-Age, houses a large collection of art and artifacts from the Middle Ages, including the tapestry cycle The Lady and the Unicorn.
- Musée Picasso, exhibits nearly 3000 pieces of art by Pablo Picasso as well as art from his own personal collection including works by Cézanne and Matisse.
Historical Centres

- Montmartre - historic area on the Butte, home to the Basilica of the Sacré Coeur and also famous for the studios and cafés of many great artists.
- Champs-Élysées - a 17th-century garden promenade turned Avenue connection between the Concorde and Arc de Triomphe.
- Place de la Concorde - at the foot of the Champs-Élysées, built as the "Place Louis XV" site of the infamous guillotine. The Egyptian obleisk it holds today can be considered Paris's "oldest monument".
- Place de la Bastille - Former eastern stronghold and gate of Paris.
- Montparnasse - historic area on the Left Bank, famous for the its artists studios, music-halls, and café life.
- Quartier Latin - Paris's scholastic center from the 12th century, formerly stretching between the Left Bank's place Maubert and the Sorbonne university. Sorbonne in Paris. Given to the city in 1885, it faces west, toward the original Liberty in New York City.]]
Cemeteries
Many of Paris's illustrious historical figures have found rest in Père Lachaise Cemetery. Other notable cemeteries include Cimetière de Montmartre, Cimetière du Montparnasse, Cimetière de Passy and the Catacombs of Paris
Parks and Gardens
. Two of Paris's most famous gardens are the Tuileries Garden on the banks of the Seine next to the Louvre and the centrally-located Luxembourg Garden, which used to belong to a château built for the Marie de' Medici. During the Second Empire, Napoleon III created three vast gardens on the outskirts of Paris: Montsouris, Buttes Chaumont in the northeast, and Parc Monceau, formerly known as the folie de Chartres, in the northwest. On the western and eastern perimeters respectively are the two "forests", the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes.
Districts

- Les Halles - shopping precinct around an important metro connection station.
- Le Marais - trendy district on the Right Bank with large gay and Jewish populations
- l'Opéra - Shopping area with department stores such as Printemps and Galeries Lafayette
Boutiques, Department Stores and Hotels
Paris is famous for gastronomical establishments like Fauchon (delicatessen), near the Église de la Madeleine, or Berthillon (ice cream) on Île-Saint-Louis. Its department stores, e.g. Galeries Lafayette, Samaritaine (currently closed) or Printemps, are remarkable not only for the wide range of items they sell but also for their 19th-century or Art Nouveau architecture. Paris also hosts a number of famous hotels. The most prestigious are probably the Hôtel de Crillon on Place de la Concorde, and the nearby Hôtel Ritz Paris on Place Vendôme.
Nightlife

- Le Lido - cabaret on the Champs-Élysées famous for its exotic shows and where, as an American GI on leave with some army friends, Elvis Presley gave an impromptu concert.
- Moulin Rouge, Le Crazy Horse Saloon, Folies Bergères - other famous cabarets
- the Paris Olympia, le Zenith, Bercy, Bobino - concert halls
- The Buddha Bar, Barfly, Hotel Costes, Georges - trendy upscale restaurant / bars to see and be seen.
- Les Bains-Douches, le Man Ray, l'Elysée Montmartre, le Queen - famous and trendy nightclubs.
- The Rex Club, Le Tryptique, Le Batofar- good places for electro music (techno, electro-rock, D&B).
Sports Clubs
Paris's main sports clubs are Paris Saint-Germain, Football (soccer) club, Paris Basket Racing, Basketball team and Stade Français, Rugby union club.
Suburban Areas of Interest

- Business district
- La Défense - major office, cinema and shopping complex, west of Paris.
- Grande Arche de la Défense - built in line with the Louvre, place du Concorde and Arc de Triomphe.
- Chateaux and churches
- Palace of Versailles - the former royal palace of Louis XIV and later kings, in the town of Versailles to the southeast of Paris.
- Vaux-le-Vicomte, near Melun, a smaller palace on which Versailles was modelled.
- Saint Denis Basilica - ancient Gothic Cathedral and burial site for many French monarchs, located north of the city.
- Civil Constructions
- Arcueil Aqueduct - built in the 17th century and raised in 1874, it channels water from sources 156km to the south of Paris to the Montsouris reservoirs.
- Recreation parks and areas
- Parc Astérix
- Disneyland Resort Paris
References
# INSEE. Recensement de la population 1999. Paris. [http://www.recensement.insee.fr/FR/ST_ANA/D75/POPALLPOP1POP1AD75FR.html "Population totale par sexe et âge"]. Retrieved December 1, 2005. # INSEE. Recensement de la population 1999. Île-de-France. [http://www.recensement.insee.fr/FR/ST_ANA/R11/POPALLPOP1POP1AR11FR.html "Population totale par sexe et âge"]. Retrieved December 1, 2005. # INSEE - Comptes régionaux - données 2003 semi-définitives en base 2 000. [http://www.insee.fr/fr/insee_regions/idf/rfc/chifcle_fiche.asp?ref_id=ecotc001&tab_id=1070 "Produit intérieur brut (PIB) à prix courants."]. Retrieved December 1, 2005.
External links

- [http://www.wikitravel.org/en/article/Paris Wikitravel:Guide to Paris]
- [http://www.paris.fr/en/ English version of official site]
- [http://www.paris.fr/ Official Paris website]
- [http://en.parisinfo.com/ English version of official Paris tourist office website]
- [http://fr.parisinfo.com/ Official Paris Tourist Office website]
- [http://maps.google.com/maps?q=paris,+france&spn=0.131836,0.176468&t=k&hl=en Google Maps satellite images of Paris] als:Paris (Stadt) ko:파리 시 ja:パリ simple:Paris th:ปารีส

May 21

May 21 is the 141st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (142nd in leap years). There are 224 days remaining.

Events

- 996 - Sixteen-year-old Otto III is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1502 - The island of Saint Helena is discovered by the Portuguese navigator João da Nova.
- 1674 - John Sobieski is elected by the nobility to be the King of Poland.
- 1725 - The Order of Alexander Nevsky was instituted in Russia by an empress Catherine I.
- 1758 - Mary Campbell is abducted from her home in Pennsylvania by Lenape during the French and Indian War.
- 1856 - Lawrence, Kansas is captured and burned by pro-slavery forces.
- 1863 - American Civil War: Siege of Port Hudson – Union forces begin to lay siege to the Confederate-controlled Port Hudson, Louisiana.
- 1871 - French Government troops invade the Paris Commune and engage its residents in street fighting. By the close of "Bloody Week" some 20,000 communards have been killed and 38,000 arrested.
- 1879 - War of the Pacific: Two Chilean ships blocking the harbor of Iquique, Chile, battle two Peruvian vessels in the Battle of Iquique.
- 1881 - The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.
- 1894 - The Manchester Ship Canal in England is officially opened by Queen Victoria, who knights its designer Sir Edward Leader Williams.
- 1894 - 22-year-old French Anarchist Emile Henry is executed by guillotine.
- 1904 - Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) founded in Paris.
- 1924 - University of Chicago students Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, Jr. murder 14-year-old Bobby Franks in a "thrill killing."
- 1927 - Charles Lindbergh touchs down at Le Bourget Field in Paris, completing the world's first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1932 - Amelia Earhart, because of bad weather, lands in a pasture in Derry, Northern Ireland, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
- 1934 - Oskaloosa, Iowa, becomes the first municipality in the United States to fingerprint each of its citizens.
- 1936 - Sada Abe is arrested after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her hand. Her story soon became one of Japan's most notorious scandals.
- 1941 - World War II: 950 miles off the coast of Brazil, the freighter SS Robin Moor becomes the first United States ship sunk by a German U-boat.
- 1945 - American screen legend Humphrey Bogart marries actress Lauren Bacall.
- 1956 - Nuclear testing: In the Pacific Ocean, Bikini Atoll is nearly obliterated by the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb.
- 1958 - United Kingdom Postmaster General Ernest Marples announces that from December, Subscriber Trunk Dialling will be introduced in the Bristol area.
- 1961 - American civil rights movement: Alabama Governor John Patterson declares martial law in an attempt to restore order after race riots break out.
- 1966 - Cassius Clay beat Henry Cooper in the sixth round at Arsenal Stadium, Highbury, north London.
- 1979 - White Night riots in San Francisco following the manslaughter conviction of Dan White for the assassinations of George Moscone and Harvey Milk.
- 1980 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back opens in theaters.
- 1981 - Pierre Mauroy becomes Prime Minister of France.
- 1991 - Former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi is assassinated by a female suicide bomber near Madras.
- 1998 - At Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, Kipland Kinkel, suspended for bringing a gun to school, shoots a semi-automatic rifle into a room filled with students, killing 2 wounding 25 others after killing his parents at home.
- 1998 - Reproductive rights: In Miami, Florida, five abortion clinics are hit by a butyric acid attacker.
- 2000 - A chartered British Aerospace Jetstream 31 crashes near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, killing 19.
- 2003 - An earthquake hits northern Algeria, killing more than 2,000 people.
- 2004 - Sherpa Pemba Dorje climbs Mount Everest in 8 hours 10 minutes, breaking his rival Sherpa Lakpa Gelu's record from the previous year.
- 2004 - Stanislav Petrov is awarded the World Citizen Award for averting a potential World War III in 1983
- 2005 - In Kiev, Ukraine, Greece wins the fiftieth Eurovision Song Contest with "My Number One" performed by Elena Paparizou.

Births

- 427 BC - Plato, Greek philosopher (d. 347 BC)
- AD 1471 - Albrecht Dürer, German painter and graphic artist (d. 1528)
- 1526 - King Philip II of Spain (d. 1598)
- 1664 - Giulio Alberoni, Italian cardinal and statesman (d. 1754)
- 1688 - Alexander Pope, English poet (d. 1744)
- 1763 - Joseph Fouché, French statesman (d. 1820)
- 1780 - Elizabeth Fry, British social reformer and philanthropist (d. 1845)
- 1843 - Charles Albert Gobat, Swiss politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1914)
- 1844 - Henri Rousseau, French artist (d. 1910)
- 1850 - Giuseppe Mercalli, Italian volcanologist (d. 1914)
- 1851 - Léon Bourgeois, French statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1925)
- 1853 - Jacques Marie Eugène Godefroy Cavaignac, French politician (d. 1905)
- 1860 - Willem Einthoven, Dutch inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1927)
- 1863 - Eugen, Archduke of Austria, Austrian field marshal (d. 1954)
- 1873 - Hans Berger, German neuroscientist (d. 1941)
- 1898 - Armand Hammer, American physician, entrepreneur, oil magnate, and art collector (d. 1990)
- 1901 - Horace Heidt, American band leader (d. 1986)
- 1901 - Sam Jaffe, American film producer (d. 2000)
- 1902 - Earl Averill, baseball player (d. 1983)
- 1902 - Marcel Lajos Breuer, Hungarian-born architect (d. 1981)
- 1903 - Manly Wade Wellman, American author (d. 1986)
- 1904 - Robert Montgomery, American actor (d. 1981)
- 1904 - Fats Waller, American pianist (d. 1943)
- 1912 - Monty Stratton, baseball player (d. 1982)
- 1916 - Tinus Osendarp, Dutch runner (d. 2002)
- 1916 - Harold Robbins, American novelist (d. 1997)
- 1917 - Raymond Burr, American actor (d. 1993)
- 1921 - Andrei Sakharov, Russian physicist and activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (declined) (d. 1989)
- 1923 - Armand Borel, Swiss mathematician (d. 2003)
- 1923 - Ara Parseghian, American football coach
- 1929 - Heinz Holliger, Swiss oboist
- 1930 - Malcolm Fraser, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia
- 1933 - Maurice André, French trumpeter
- 1934 - Bengt I. Samuelsson, Swedish biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1936 - Günter Blobel, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- 1939 - Heinz Holliger, Swiss oboist and composer
- 1941 - Martin Carthy, English singer and guitarist
- 1944 - Mary Robinson, President of Ireland
- 1945 - Ernst Messerschmid, German physicist and astronaut
- 1948 - Leo Sayer, English pop singer & musician
- 1951 - Al Franken, American comedian and author
- 1952 - Mr. T, American actor
- 1955 - Paul Barber, British field hockey player
- 1956 - Judge Reinhold, American actor
- 1957 - Renée Soutendijk, Dutch actress
- 1967 - Chris Benoit, Canadian professional wrestler
- 1967 - Lisa Edelstein, American actress
- 1972 - The Notorious B.I.G., American musician (d. 1997)
- 1972 - Alesha Oreskovich, American model
- 1977 - Quinton Fortune, South African footballer
- 1977 - Ricky Williams, American football player
- 1978 - Briana Banks, German-American actress
- 1980 - Raab Himself, American actor
- 1981 - Belladonna, American actress
- 1981 - Max, German singer
- 1987 - Ashlie Brillault, American actress

Deaths

- 987 - King Louis V of France
- 1254 - Conrad IV of Germany (b. 1228)
- 1481 - King Christian I of Denmark, Norway and Sweden (b. 1426)
- 1512 - Pandolfo Petrucci, ruler of Siena
- 1524 - Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, English soldier and statesman
- 1542 - Hernando de Soto, Spanish explorer
- 1607 - John Rainolds, English scholar and Bible translator (b. 1549)
- 1639 - Tommaso Campanella, Italian theologian, philosopher, and poet (b. 1568)
- 1647 - Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Dutch poet and historian (b. 1581)
- 1650 - James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Scottish royalist (b. 1612)
- 1664 - Elizabeth Poole, Puritan businesswoman
- 1670 - Niccolo Zucchi, Italian astronomer and physicist (b. 1586)
- 1690 - John Eliot, English Puritan missionary (b. 1604)
- 1724 - Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, English statesman (b. 1661)
- 1742 - Lars Roberg, Swedish physician (b. 1664)
- 1771 - Christopher Smart, English poet (b. 1722)
- 1786 - Carl Wilhelm Scheele, Swedish chemist (b. 1742)
- 1790 - Thomas Warton, English poet (b. 1728)
- 1844 - Giuseppe Baini, Italian composer (b. 1775)
- 1894 - Emile Henry, French anarchist (b. 1872)
- 1894 - August Kundt, German physicist (b. 1839)
- 1895 - Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (b. 1819)
- 1897 - Arturo Prat, Chilean naval officer (b. 1898)
- 1911 - Williamina Fleming, Scottish-born astronomer (b. 1857)
- 1929 - Archibald Primrose, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1847)
- 1935 - Jane Addams, American social worker, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1860)
- 1952 - John Garfield, American actor (b. 1913)
- 1964 - James Franck, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1882)
- 1965 - Geoffrey de Havilland, British aircraft designer (b. 1882)
- 1970 - E. L. Grant Watson, Australian author and biologist (b. 1885)
- 1988 - Sammy Davis, Sr., American dancer (b. 1900)
- 1991 - Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister of India (b. 1944)
- 1996 - Lash LaRue, American actor (b. 1917)
- 1999 - Karnail Pitts, also known as Bugz, rapper for D12 (b. 1979)
- 2000 - Barbara Cartland, English author (b. 1901)
- 2000 - Sir John Gielgud, British actor (b. 1904)
- 2002 - Niki de Saint Phalle, French artist (b. 1930)
- 2003 - Frank D. White, Governor of Arkansas (b. 1933)

Holidays and observances

- Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
- Thibaut
- Gisela
- Godric of Finchale
- Hospitus
- Maurelius
- Namibia - Casinga Day
- Navy Day in Chile
- Armed Forces Day in the United States (2005), third Saturday in May
- Astrology: First day of sun sign Gemini in New World
- Astrology: Last day of sun sign Taurus in Old World

External links

- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/21 BBC: On This Day] ---- May 20 - May 22 - April 21 - June 21 – listing of all days ko:5월 21일 ms:21 Mei ja:5月21日 simple:May 21 th:21 พฤษภาคม

1904

1904 (MCMIV) is a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar).

Events

January-March

- January 7 - The distress signal CQD is established only to be replaced two years later by SOS.
- February 7 - The Great Baltimore Fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
- February 8 - Japanese surprise attack on Port Arthur (Lushun) starts Russo-Japanese War
- February 10 – Roger Casement publishes his account of Belgian atrocities in Congo
- February 23 - For $10 million the United States gains control of the Panama Canal Zone.
- March 3 - Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany becomes the first person to make a political recording of a document, using Thomas Edison's cylinder.
- March 4 - Russo-Japanese War: Russian troops in Korea retreat toward Manchuria followed by 100,000 Japanese troops.
- March 8 – The first tunnel beneath the Hudson River completed
- March 21 – Battle of Chumik Shenko – British under general Francis Younghusband defeat ill-equipped Tibetan troops.

April-June

- April 8 - Entente Cordiale signed between the UK and France.
- April 8 - Longacre Square in Midtown Manhattan is renamed Times Square after The New York Times.
- April 8, April 9, and April 10 - Aleister Crowley receives The Book of the Law in Cairo, Egypt.
- April 18 – Hurricane in Goliad, Texas kills 114.
- April 27 - The Australian Labor Party becomes the first such party to gain national government, under Chris Watson.
- April 30 - Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in Saint Louis, Missouri (closes December 1)
- May 4 - First Rolls-Royce manufactured
- May 5 - Pitching against the Philadelphia Athletics at the Huntington Avenue Grounds, Cy Young of the Boston Americans threw the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.
- May 18 - in Paris, 12 nations sign the International Agreement for the Suppression of the White Slave Trade
- June 15 - A fire aboard the steamboat General Slocum in New York City's East River kills 1000.
- June 16 - Eugen Schauman assassinates Nikolai Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland.
- June 16 - Leopold Bloom walks through Dublin (First Bloomsday).

July-December

- July 21 - Trans-Siberian railway completed
- July 23 - In St. Louis, Missouri, Charles E. Menches invents the ice cream cone during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.
- August 3 - A British expedition under colonel Francis Younghusband takes Lhasa in Tibet
- August 17 – Japanese infantry charge fails to take Port Arthur.
- August 18 - Chris Watson resigns as Prime Minister of Australia and is succeeded by George Reid.
- September 7 - Fire spreads over downtown Baltimore in USA - 1500 buildings destroyed, no known fatalities.
- September 7 - Dalai Lama signs the Anglo-Tibetan Treaty with colonel Francis Younghusband
- October 21 - Russian Baltic Fleet fires on British trawlers it mistakes for Japanese torpedo boats in the North Sea, in what would be known as the Dogger Bank incident.
- October 27 - The first underground line of the New York City Subway opens (IRT); the system is now the largest in the United States, and one of the largest in the world.
- November 4 - In Florence, Italy, the Arno River floods.
- November 8 - Theodore Roosevelt defeats Alton B. Parker in the U.S. presidential election
- November 24 - The first successful caterpillar track is made (it would later revolutionize construction vehicles and land warfare).
- December 2 - St. Petersburg Soviet urges run on the banks. Attempt fails and the executive committee is arrested
- December 27 - The stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up premiered in London
- December 31 - The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.

Unknown dates

- Ismael Montes becomes president of Bolivia.
- Herero Wars begin.
- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Joseph F. Smith issues a "Second Manifesto" against polygamy.
- 1904-1905 Welsh Revival- Christian revival breaks out in Wales.
- Subject of alcohol and heart attacks first investigated.

Births

January-February

- January 1 - Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Pakistani politician (d. 1982)
- January 3 - Jeane Dixon, American astrologer (d. 1997)
- January 10 - Ray Bolger, American actor, singer, and dancer (d. 1987)
- January 14 - Cecil Beaton, English photographer (d. 1980)
- January 18 - Cary Grant, English actor (d. 1986)
- January 22 - George Balanchine, Russian-born choreographer (d. 1983)
- January 22 - Arkady Gaidar, Russian children's writer (d. 1941)
- January 26 - Ancel Keys, American scientist (d, 2004)
- January 26 - Seán MacBride, Irish statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1988)
- January 29 - Arnold Gehlen, German philosopher (d. 1976)
- January 29 - Luigi Nono, Italian composer (d. 1990)
- February 1 - S. J. Perelman, American humorist and author (d. 1979)
- February 3 - Luigi Dallapiccola, Italian composer (d. 1975)
- February 3 - Pretty Boy Floyd, American gangster (d. 1934)
- February 4 - MacKinlay Kantor, American writer and historian (d. 1977)
- February 11 - Sir Keith Holyoake, Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1983)
- February 16 - George F. Kennan, American diplomat (d. 2005)
- February 20 - Aleksei Kosygin, Premier of the Soviet Union (d. 1980)
- February 29 - Jimmy Dorsey, American bandleader (d. 1957)

March-April

- March 1 - Glenn Miller, American bandleader (d. 1944)
- March 2 - Dr. Seuss, American author (d. 1991)
- March 4 - George Gamow, Ukrainian-born physicist (d. 1968)
- March 6 - Joseph Schmidt, Austrian tenor (d. 1942)
- March 7 - Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi official (d. 1942)
- March 20 - B. F. Skinner, American behavioral psychologist (d. 1990)
- March 26 - Joseph Campbell, American author on mythology (d. 1987)
- March 26 - Xenophon Zolotas, Prime Minister of Greece (d. 2004)
- April 3 - Sally Rand, American dancer and actress (d. 1979)
- April 7 - Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1971)
- April 8 - John Hicks, English economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
- April 9 - Sharkey Bonano, American jazz musician (d. 1972)
- April 14 - Sir John Gielgud, English actor (d. 2000)
- April 16 - Fifi D'Orsay, Canadian actress (d. 1983)
- April 22 - Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (d. 1967)
- April 24 - Willem de Kooning, Dutch artist (d. 1997)
- April 26 - Jimmy McGrory, Scottish footballer (d. 1982)
- April 27 - Cecil Day-Lewis, English poet (d. 1972)

May-July

- May 6 - Moshe Feldenkrais, Ukrainian-born engineer (d. 1984)
- May 6 - Harry Martinson, Swedish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1978)
- May 11 - Salvador Dalí, Spanish artist (d. 1989)
- May 17 - Jean Gabin, French actor (d. 1976)
- May 21 - Fats Waller, American pianist and comedian (d. 1943)
- May 21 - Robert Montgomery, American actor and director (d. 1981)
- May 27 - Chuhei Nambu, Japanese athlete (d. 1997)
- June 2 - Frantisek Planicka, Czech footballer (d. 1996)
- June 2 - Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor (d. 1984)
- June 3 - Jan Peerce, American tenor (d. 1984)
- June 26 - Peter Lorre, Austria-Hugarian-born film actor (d. 1964)
- July 5 - Ernst Mayr, German-born biologist and author (d. 2005)
- July 12 - Pablo Neruda, Chilean poet, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
- July 17 - Tsarevich Alexei of Russia (d. 1918)
- July 28 - Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov, Russian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
- July 31 - Brett Halliday, American writer (d. 1977)

August-December

- August 4 - Witold Gombrowicz, Polish novelist and dramatist (d. 1969)
- August 7 - Ralph Bunche, American diplomat, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1971)
- August 16 - Wendell Meredith Stanley, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1971)
- August 17 - Leopold Nowak, Austrian musicologist (d. 1991)
- August 21 - Count Basie, American musician and bandleader (d. 1984)
- August 22 - Deng Xiaoping, de facto Chinese leader (d. 1997)
- August 23 - Thelma Morgan, Viscountess Furness, American socialite twin (d. 1970)
- August 23 - Gloria Morgan-Vanderbilt, American socialite twin (d. 1965)
- August 28 - Secondo Campini, Italian jet pioneer (d. 1980)
- August 29 - Werner Forssmann, German physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1979)
- September 9 - Feroze Khan, Pakistani field hockey player (d. 2005)
- September 22 - Joseph Valachi, gangster (d. 1971)
- September 29 - Greer Garson, English actress (d. 1996)
- October 1 - A.K. Gopalan, Indian communist leader (d. 1977)
- October 3 - Charles J. Pedersen, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
- October 23 - Harvey Penick, American golfer (d. 1995)
- October 25 - Vladimir Peter Tytla, American animator (d. 1968)
- November 2 - Louis Eugène Félix Néel, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2000)
- November 11 - J. H. C. Whitehead, British mathematician (d. 1960)
- November 12 - Jacques Tourneur, French director (d. 1977)
- November 14 - Dick Powell, American actor and singer (d. 1963)
- November 14 - Michael Ramsey, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1988)
- November 25 - Lillian Copeland, American athlete (d. 1964)
- November 30 - Clyfford Still, American painter (d. 1980)
- December 12 - Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, magazine editor, socialite (d. 1981)
- December 18 - George Stevens, American film director (d. 1975)
- December 25 - Gerhard Herzberg, German-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
- December 26 - Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer (d. 1980)
- December 30 - Dmitri Borisovich Kabalevsky, Russian composer (d. 1987)

Unknown dates

- Gustave Biéler, Swiss-born hero of World War II (executed) (d. 1944)
- Bernard Castro, Italian inventor (d. 1991)
- J. J. Gibson, Gay psychologist (d. 1979)

Deaths

- January 2 - James Longstreet, American Confederate general (b. 1821)
- January 20 - Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, Russian chemist (b. 1834)
- March 5 - John Lowther du Plat Taylor, British founder of the Army Post Office Corps (b. 1829)
- May 1 - Antonin Dvorak, Czech composer (b. 1841)
- May 19 - Auguste Molinier, French historian (b. 1851)
- June 4 - George Frederick Phillips, Canadian-born military hero (b. 1862)
- July 3 - Theodor Herzl, Austrian founder of Zionism (b. 1860)
- July 5 - Abai Kunanbaiuli, Kazakh poet (b. 1845)
- July 14 - Anton Chekhov, Russian writer (b. 1860)
- July 14 - Paul Kruger, South African resistance leader (b. 1825)
- July 22 - Wilson Barrett, English actor (b. 1846)
- August 6 - Eduard Hanslick, Austrian music critic (b. 1825)
- August 22 - Kate Chopin, American author (b. 1851)
- August 25 - Henri Fantin-Latour, French painter (b. 1836)
- August 29 - Murad V, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1840)
- September 25 - Niels Ryberg Finsen, Danish physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1860)
- September 26 - John F. Stairs, Canadian businessman and statesman (b. 1848)
- October 4 - Frédéric Bartholdi, Alsatian sculptor (b. 1834)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - The Lord Rayleigh
- Chemistry - Sir William Ramsay
- Physiology or Medicine - Ivan Petrovich Pavlov
- Literature - Frédéric Mistral, José Echegaray Y Eizaguirre
- Peace - Institut De Droit International Category:1904 ko:1904년 ms:1904 ja:1904年 simple:1904 th:พ.ศ. 2447

English language

English is a West Germanic language that is spoken in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, and many other countries. English is now the third-most spoken native language worldwide (after Chinese and Hindi), with some 380 million speakers. It has lingua franca status in many parts of the world, due to the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries and that of the United States from the 20th century to the present. Through the global influence of native English speakers in cinema, airlines, broadcasting, science, and the Internet in recent decades, English is now the most widely learned second language in the world. Many students worldwide are required to learn some English, and a working knowledge of English is required in many fields and occupations.

History

English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Old Saxon language brought to Britain by Germanic settlers from various parts of northwest Germany. The original Old English language was subsequently influenced by two successive waves of invasion. The first was by speakers of languages in the Scandinavian branch of the Germanic family, who colonised parts of Britain in the 8th and 9th centuries. The second wave was of the Normans in the 11th century, who spoke a variety of French. These two invasions caused English to become "creolised" to some degree (though it was never a full creole in the linguistic sense of the word); creolisation arises from the cohabitation of speakers of different languages, who develop a hybrid tongue for basic communication. Cohabitation with the Scandinavians resulted in a significant grammatical simplification and lexical enrichment of the Anglo-Friesian core of English; the later Norman occupation led to the grafting onto that Germanic core a more elaborate layer of words from the Romance branch of European languages; this new layer entered English through use in the courts and government. Thus, English developed into a "borrowing" language of considerable suppleness and huge vocabulary. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, around the year 449, Vortigern, King of the British Isles, invited the "Angle kin" (Angles led by Hengest and Horsa) to help him against the Picts. In return, the Angles were granted lands in the south-east. Further aid was sought, and in response "came men of Ald Seaxum of Anglum of Iotum" (Saxons, Angles, and Jutes). The Chronicle talks of a subsequent influx of settlers who eventually established seven kingdoms, known as the heptarchy. Modern scholarship considers most of this story to be legendary and politically motivated. These Germanic invaders dominated the original Celtic-speaking inhabitants, whose languages survived largely in Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland. The dialects spoken by the invaders formed what would be called Old English, which resembled some coastal dialects in what are now the Netherlands and north-west Germany. Later, it was strongly influenced by the North Germanic language Norse, spoken by the Vikings who settled mainly in the north-east (see Jorvik). The new and the earlier settlers spoke languages from different branches of the Germanic family; many of their lexical roots were the same or similar, although their grammars were more distant, including the prefixes, suffixes and inflections of many of their words. The Germanic language of these Old English inhabitants of Britain would be partly creolised by the contact with Norse invaders. This resulted in a stripping away of much of the grammar of Old English, including gender and case, with the notable exception of the pronouns; thus, the language became simpler and plainer. The most famous work from the Old English period is the epic poem "Beowulf", by an unknown poet. For the 300 years following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Norman kings and the high nobility spoke only a variety of French. A large number of Norman words were assimilated into Old English, with some words doubling for Old English words (for instance, ox/beef, sheep/mutton). The Norman influence reinforced the continual evolution of the language over the following centuries, resulting in what is now referred to as Middle English. Among the changes was a broadening in the use of a unique aspect of English grammar, the "continuous" tenses, with the suffix "-ing". During the 15th century, Middle English was transformed by the Great Vowel Shift, the spread of a standardised London-based dialect in government and administration, and the standardising effect of printing. Modern English can be traced back to around the time of William Shakespeare. The most well-known work from the Middle English period is Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.

Classification and related languages

The English language belongs to the western subbranch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The closest living relative of English is Scots (Lallans), a West Germanic language spoken mostly in Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland. Like English, Scots is a direct descendant of Old English, also known as Anglo-Saxon. After Scots, the next closest relative is Frisian—spoken in the Netherlands and Germany. Other less closely related living languages include Dutch, Afrikaans, German, Plattdüütsch and the Scandinavian languages. Many French words are also intelligible to an English speaker (pronunciations are not always identical, of course), because English absorbed a tremendous amount of vocabulary from French, via the Norman language after the Norman conquest and directly from French in further centuries; as a result, a substantial share of English vocabulary is quite close to the French, with some minor spelling differences (word endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional differences in meaning.

Geographic distribution

Norman conquest English is the second or third most widely spoken language in the world today; a total of 600–700 million people use English regularly. About 377 million people use English as their mother tongue, and an equal number of people use it as their second or foreign language. It is used widely in either the public or private sphere in more than 100 countries all over the world. In addition, the language has occupied a primary place in international academic and business communities. The current status of the English language compares with that of Latin in the past. English is the primary language in Antigua and Barbuda, Australia (Australian English), the Bahamas, Barbados (Caribbean English), Bermuda, Belize, Canada (Canadian English), the Cayman Islands, Dominica, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guernsey, Guyana, Ireland (Irish English), Isle of Man, Jamaica (Jamaican English), Jersey, Montserrat, New Zealand (New Zealand English), Saint Helena, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the United Kingdom (various forms of British English), the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the United States. English is also an important minority language of South Africa (South African English), and in several other former colonies and current dependent territories of the United Kingdom and the United States, for example Guam and Mauritius. In Hong Kong, English is an official language and is widely used in business activities. It is taught from kindergarten, and is the medium of instruction for a few primary schools, many secondary schools and all universities. Substantial numbers of students acquire native-speaker level. It is so widely used and spoken that it is inadequate to say it is merely a second or foreign language, though there are still many people in Hong Kong with poor or no command of English. The majority of English native speakers (67 to 70 per cent) live in the United States. Although the U.S. federal government has no official languages, it has been given official status by 27 of the 50 state governments, most of which have declared English their sole official language. Hawaii, Louisiana, and New Mexico have also designated Hawaiian, French, and Spanish, respectively, as official languages in conjunction with English. In many other countries where English is not a major first language, it is an official language; these countries include Cameroon, Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia, Ghana, Gambia, India, Kiribati, Lesotho, Liberia, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, Malta, the Marshall Islands, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. English is the most widely learned and used foreign language in the world, and as such, many linguists believe it is no longer the exclusive cultural emblem of "native English speakers", but rather a language that is absorbing aspects of cultures worldwide as it grows in use. Others believe that there are limits to how far English can go in suiting everyone for communication purposes. It is the language most often studied as a foreign language in Europe (32.6 per cent), followed by French, German, and Spanish. It is also the most studied in Japan, South Korea and in the Republic of China (Taiwan), where it is compulsory for most high school students. See English as an additional language.

English as a global language

See also: English on the Internet Because English is so widely spoken, it has been referred to as a "global language". While English is not the official language in many countries, it is the language most often taught as a second language around the world. It is also, by international treaty, the official language for aircraft/airport communication. Its widespread acceptance as a first or second language is the main indication of its global status. There are numerous arguments for and against English as a global language. On one hand, having a global language aids in communication and in pooling information (for example, in the scientific community). On the other hand, it excludes those who, for one reason or another, are not fluent. It can also marginalise populations whose first language is not the global language, and lead to a cultural hegemony of the populations speaking the global language as a first language. Most of these arguments hold for any candidate for a global language, though the last two counter-arguments do not hold for languages not belonging to any ethnic group (like Esperanto). A secondary concern with respect to the spread of global languages (English, Spanish, etc.) is the resulting disappearance of minority languages, often along with the cultures and religions that are primarily transmitted in those languages. English has been implicated in a number of historical and ongoing so-called "language deaths" and "linguicides" around the world, many of which have also led to the loss of cultural heritage. In the Americas, Native American nations have been most strongly affected by this phenomenon.

Dialects and regional variants

The expansiveness of the British and the Americans has spread English throughout the globe. Because of its global spread, it has bred a variety of English dialects and English-based creoles and pidgins. The major varieties of English in most cases contain several subvarieties, such as Cockney within British English, Newfoundland English within Canadian English, and African American Vernacular English ("Ebonics") within American English. English is considered a pluricentric language, with no variety being clearly considered the only standard. Some consider Scots as an English dialect. Pronunciation, grammar and lexis differ, sometimes substantially. The Scottish dialect retains many German aspects including guttural pronunciations. Because of English's wide use as a second language, English speakers can have many different accents, which may identify the speaker's native dialect or language. For more distinctive characteristics of regional accents, see Regional accents of English speakers. For more distinctive characteristics of regional dialects, see List of dialects of the English language. Many countries around the world have blended English words and phrases into their everyday speech and refer to the result by a colloquial name that implies its bilingual origins, which parallels the English language's own addiction to loan words and borrowings. Named examples of these ad-hoc constructions, distinct from pidgin and creole languages, include Engrish, Wasei-eigo, Franglais and Spanglish. (See List of dialects of the English language for a complete list.) Europanto combines many languages but has an English core.

Constructed variants of English

- Basic English is simplified for easy international use. It is used by some aircraft manufacturers and other international businesses to write manuals and communicate. Some English schools in the Far East teach it as an initial practical subset of English.
- Special English is a simplified version of English used by the Voice of America. It uses a vocabulary of 1500 words.
- English reform is an attempt to improve collectively upon the English language.
- Seaspeak and the related Airspeak and Policespeak, all based on restricted vocabularies, were designed by Edward Johnson in the 1980s to aid international co-operation and communication in specific areas.
- European English is a new variant of the English language created to become the common language in Europe.

Sounds

Vowels

Notes: It is the vowels that differ most from region to region. Where symbols appear in pairs, the first corresponds to the sounds used in North American English, the second corresponds to English spoken elsewhere. #North American English lacks this sound; words with this sound are pronounced with or . According to The Canadian Oxford Dictionary (1998), this sound is present in Standard Canadian English. #Many dialects of North American English do not have this vowel. See cot-caught merger. #The North American variation of this sound is a rhotic vowel. #Many speakers of North American English do not distinguish between these two unstressed vowels. For them, roses and Rosa's are pronounced the same, and the symbol usually used is schwa . #This sound is often transcribed with or with . #The letter U can represent either /u/ or the iotated vowel /ju/.

Consonants

This is the English Consonantal System using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). #The velar nasal is a non-phonemic allophone of /n/ in some northerly British accents, appearing only before /g/. In all other dialects it is a separate phoneme, although it only occurs in syllable codas. #The alveolar flap is an allophone of /t/ and /d/ in unstressed syllables in North American English and increasingly in Australian English. This is the sound of "tt" or "dd" in the words latter and ladder, which are homophones in North American English. This is the same sound represented by single "r" in some varieties of Spanish. #In some dialects, such as Cockney, the interdentals /θ/ and /ð/ are usually merged with /f/ and /v/, and in others, like African American Vernacular English, /ð/ is merged with /d/. In some Irish varieties, /θ/ and /ð/ become the corresponding dental plosives, which then contrast with the usual alveolar plosives. #The sounds are labialised in some dialects. Labialisation is never contrastive in initial position and therefore is sometimes not transcribed. #The voiceless velar fricative /x/ is used only by Scottish or Welsh speakers of English for Scots/Gaelic words such as loch or by some speakers for loanwords from German and Hebrew like Bach or Chanukah /xanuka/, or in some dialects such as Scouse (Liverpool) where the affricate [kx] is used instead of /k/ in words such as docker . Most native speakers have a great deal of trouble pronouncing it correctly when learning a foreign language. Most speakers use the sounds [k] and [h] instead. #Voiceless w is found in Scottish, Irish, some upper-class British, some eastern United States, and New Zealand accents. In all other dialects it is merged with /w/.

Voicing and Aspiration

Voicing and aspiration of stop consonants in English depend on dialect and context, but a few general rules can be given:
- Voiceless plosives and affricates (//, //, //, and //) are aspirated when they are word-initial or begin a stressed syllable and are not part of a consonant cluster—compare pin [] and spin [].
- In some dialects, aspiration extends to unstressed syllables as well.
- In other dialects, such as Indian English, most or all voiceless stops may remain unaspirated.
- Word-initial voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects.
- Word-terminal voiceless plosives may be unreleased or accompanied by a glottal stop in some dialects (e.g. many varieties of American English)—examples: tap [], sack [].
- Word-terminal voiced plosives may be devoiced in some dialects (e.g. some varieties of American English)—examples: sad [], bag []. In other dialects they are fully voiced in final position, but only partially voiced in initial position.

Intonation

Tone groups

English is an Intonation language. This means that the pitch of the voice is used syntactically, for example, to convey surprise and irony, or to change a statement into a question. In English, intonation patterns are on groups of words, which are called tone groups, tone units, intonation groups or sense groups. Tone groups are said on a single breath and, as a consequence, are of limited length, more often being on average five words long or lasting roughly two seconds. The structure of tone groups can have a crucial impact on the meaning of what is said. For example: :- :- :-

Characteristics of intonation

Each tone group can be subdivided into syllables, which can either be stressed (strong) or unstressed (weak). There is always a strong syllable, which is stressed more than the others. This is called the nuclear syllable. For example: :That | was | the | best | thing | you | could | have | done! Here, all syllables are unstressed, except the syllables/words "best" and "done", which are stressed. "Best" is stressed harder and, therefore, is the nuclear syllable. The nuclear syllable carries the main point the speaker wishes to make. For example: :John had stolen that money. (... not I) :John had stolen that money. (... you said he hadn't) :John had stolen that money. (... he wasn't given it) :John had stolen that money. (... not this money) :John had stolen that money. (... not something else) The nuclear syllable is spoken louder than all the others and has a characteristic change of pitch. The changes of pitch most commonly encountered in English are the rising pitch and the falling pitch, although the fall-rising pitch and/or the rise-falling pitch are sometimes used. For example: :When do you want to be paid? :Nów? (rising pitch. In this case, it denotes a question: can I be paid now?) :Nòw (falling pitch. In this case, it denotes a statement: I choose to be paid now)

Grammar

English grammar is based on its Germanic roots, though some scholars during the 1700s and 1800s attempted to impose Latin grammar upon it, with little success. English is just slightly inflected, much less so than most Indo-European languages. It compensates for this by placing more grammatical information in auxiliary words and word order. Unlike most other Indo-European languages, modern nominal groups (nouns) in English do not carry gender, although an archaic form of gender is technically assigned as either masculine, feminine, neuter or common. Engendered nouns are only apparent in special cases, such as "I loved that ship as if she were my own", where the noun "ship" is referred to by its feminine pronoun.

Vocabulary

Almost without exception, Germanic words (which include all the basics such as pronouns and conjunctions) are shorter and more informal. Latinate words are often regarded as more elegant or educated. However, the excessive use of Latinate words is often mistaken for either pretentiousness (as in the stereotypical policeman's talk of "apprehending the suspect") or obfuscation (as in a military document which says "neutralise" when it means "kill"). George Orwell's essay Politics and the English Language gives a thorough treatment of this feature of English. An English speaker is often able to choose between Germanic and Latinate synonyms: "come" or "arrive"; "sight" or "vision"; "freedom" or "liberty"—and sometimes also between a word inherited through French and a borrowing direct from Latin of the same root word: "oversee", "survey" or "supervise". The richness of the language is that such synonyms have slightly different meanings, enabling the language to be used in a very flexible way to express fine variations or shades of thought. List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents In everyday speech the majority of words will normally be Germanic. If a speaker wishes to make a forceful point in an argument in a very blunt way, Germanic words will usually be chosen. A majority of Latinate words (or at least a majority of content words) will normally be used in more formal speech and writing, such as a courtroom or an encyclopedia article. English is noted for the vast size of its active vocabulary and its fluidity. English easily accepts technical terms into common usage and imports new words which often come into common usage. In addition, slang provides new meanings for old words. In fact this fluidity is so pronounced that a distinction often needs to be made between formal forms of English and contemporary usage. See also sociolinguistics.

Number of words in English

As the General Explanations at the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary state: :The Vocabulary of a widely diffused and highly cultivated living language is not a fixed quantity circumscribed by definite limits.... there is absolutely no defining line in any direction: the circle of the English language has a well-defined centre but no discernible circumference. The vocabulary of English is undoubtedly vast, but assigning a specific number to its size is more a matter of definition than of calculation. Unlike other languages, there is no Academy to define officially accepted words. Neologisms are coined regularly in medicine, science and technology—some enter wide usage; others remain restricted to small circles. Foreign words used in immigrant communities often make their way into wider English usage. Archaic, dialectal, and regional words might be considered "English" or not. The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition) includes over 500,000 headwords, following a rather inclusive policy: :It embraces not only the standard language of literature and conversation, whether current at the moment, or obsolete, or archaic, but also the main technical vocabulary, and a large measure of dialectal usage and slang (Supplement to the OED, 1933). The difficulty of defining the number of words is compounded by the emergence of new versions of English, such as Asian English.

Word origins

One of the consequences of the French influence is that the vocabulary of English is, to a certain extent, divided between those words which are Germanic (mostly Old English) and those which are "Latinate" (Latin-derived, mostly from Norman French but some borrowed directly from Latin). A computerised survey of about 80,000 words in the old Shorter Oxford Dictionary (3rd ed.) was published in Ordered Profusion by Thomas Finkenstaedt and Dieter Wolff (1973) which estimated the origin of English words as follows:
- French, including Old French and early Anglo-French: 28.3%
- Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24%
- Old and Middle English, Old Norse, and Dutch: 25%
- Greek: 5.32%
- No etymology given: 4.03%
- Derived from proper names: 3.28%
- All other languages contributed less than 1% James D. Nicoll made the oft-quoted observation: "The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary." [http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=1990May15.155309.8892%40watdragon.waterloo.edu&oe=UTF-8&output=gplain]

Writing system

English is written using the Latin alphabet. The spelling system or orthography of English is historical, not phonological. The spelling of words often diverges considerably from how they are spoken, and English spelling is often considered to be one of the most difficult to learn of any language that uses an alphabet. See English orthography.

Basic sound-letter correspondence

Written accents

English includes some words which can be written with accent marks. These words have mostly been imported from other languages, usually French. But it is increasingly rare for writers of English to actually use the accent marks for common words, even in very formal writing, to the point where actually writing the accent may be interpreted as a sign of pretension—though this view is counterbalanced by the view that fine typography should preserve accents, especially where it makes a distinction in pronunciation (compare façade vs. facade which would rhyme with cascade). The strongest tendency to retain the accent is in words that are atypical of English morphology and therefore still perceived as slightly foreign. For example, café has a pronounced final e, which would be silent by the normal English pronunciation rules. Some examples: ångström, appliqué, attaché, blasé, bric-à-brac, café, cliché, crème, crêpe, façade, fiancé(e), flambé, naïve, né(e), papier-mâché, passé, piñata, protégé, raison d'être, résumé, risqué, über-, vis-à-vis, voilà. For a more complete list, see List of English words with diacritics. Some words such as rôle and hôtel were first seen with accents when they were borrowed into English, but now the accent is almost never used. The words were considered very French borrowings when first used in English, even accused by some of being foreign phrases used where English alternatives would suffice, but today their French origin is largely forgotten. The accent on "élite" has disappeared from most publications today, but Time magazine still uses it. For some words such as "soupçon" however, the only spelling found in English dictionaries (the OED and others) uses the diacritic. Italics, with appropriate accents, are generally applied to foreign terms that are uncommonly used in or have not been assimilated into English: for example, adiós, coup d'état, crème brûlée, pièce de résistance, raison d'être, über (übermensch), vis-à-vis. It is also possible to use a diaeresis to indicate a syllable break, but again this is often left out or a hyphen used instead. Examples: coöperate (or co-operate), daïs, naïve, noël, reëlect (or re-elect). One publication that still uses a diaeresis to indicate a syllable break is the New Yorker magazine. Written accents are also used occasionally in poetry and scripts for dramatic performances to indicate that a certain normally unstressed syllable in a word should be stressed for dramatic effect, or to keep with the meter of the poetry. This use is frequently seen in archaic and pseudoarchaic writings with the "-ed" suffix, to indicate that the "e" should be fully pronounced, as with cursèd. In certain older texts (typically in Commonwealth English), the use of ligatures is common in words such as archæology, œsophagus, and encyclopædia. Such words have Latin or Greek origin. Nowadays, the ligatures have been generally replaced in Commonwealth English by the separated letters "ae" and "oe" ("archaeology", "oesophagus") and in American English by "e" ("archeology", "esophagus"). However, the spellings "oeconomy" and "oecology" are now generally replaced by "economy" and "ecology" in Commonwealth English, making these spellings the same as in American English.
See also

- English literature
- Formal written English - regional differences
- List of languages
- Common phrases in various languages
Dialects

- American and British English differences
- English speaking Europe
- General American
- List of dialects of the English language
Pronunciation

- General American
- International Phonetic Alphabet for English
- List of words of disputed pronunciation
- Non-native pronunciations of English
- Phonemic differentiation in English
- Received Pronunciation
- Regional accents of English speakers
- Rhotic and non-rhotic accents
Social, cultural or political

- English as a lingua franca for Europe
- English as an additional language
- English on the Internet
- Foreign language influences in English
- Languages in the United States
- Lists of English words of international origin
- Anglosphere
- Anglo-Saxon
Grammar

- English declension
- English plural
- English verb conjugation
- Initial-stress-derived noun
- Present progressive tense
Usage

- Dictionary
- Like
- List of archaic English words and their modern equivalents
- List of unusual English words
- Longest word in English
- Misspelling
- Gender-neutral language
- Singular they
- Siamese twins (English language)
External links

- [http://www.abroadlanguages.com/al/english/ Learning English abroad] and online. With dictionaries, games, penpals, etc.
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/routesofenglish/index.shtml BBC - Radio 4 - Routes of English]
- [http://www.englishtenseswithcartoons.com Short Discriptions of the English Tenses]
- [http://www.ego4u.com/ English Grammar Online] free exercises, explanations, games and teaching materials on English as a foreign language
- [http://www.eslbase.com/ TEFL] - Teaching English as a Foreign Language - information and advice
- http://www.teach-yourself-english.com/ Easy-going learning aid
- [http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en Learning English Online] grammar, vocabulary, exercises, exams - English as a second language.
- [http://www.english.hb.pl Pako's English Page - Articles and advice on learning English]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=eng Ethnologue report for English]
- [http://www.LanguageMonitor.com LanguageMonitor] - Watchdog on contemporary English usage
- [http://www.vec.ca/english/1/english.cfm Development of English]
- [http://www.esu.org English Speaking Union]
- [http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm The World's Most Widely Spoken Languages]
- [http://www.antimoon.com/ Antimoon - How to learn English] - Advice and inspiration for learners of English.
- [http://www.zozanga.com/ Zozanga ESL - Learn Online English] How to learn English.
- [http://www.quiz-tree.com/English_Spelling_main.html Free English spelling quizzes]
- [http://inenglishofcourse.pl Conversation and Resource Point for Learners of English]
- [http://www.globalenglishsalon.com Global English Salon] - Listen to English online free.
- [http://www.loecsen.com/travel/discover_pop.php?lang=en&to_lang=2&learn-English/ Learn and listen to useful expressions in English] Each expression is presented with an audio recording and an illustration
- [http://www.whatdoesthatmean.com What Does That Mean?] A wiki based lexicon of English idioms from around the world
- [http://www1.ku-eichstaett.de/SLF/EngluVglSW/ELiX/bge.pdf Basic Global English]
Dictionaries

- [http://www.oed.com Oxford English Dictionary] The definitive record of the English language
- [http://dicts.info/dictlist1.php All free English dictionaries] Collection of many free English dictionaries.
- [http://dictionary.cambridge.org Cambridge Dictionary]
- [http://www.freelang.net/dictionary/french.html Freelang - French-English Dictionary made by Bertrand Cornu]
Further reading

- Baugh AC and Cable T. A history of the English language (5th ed), Rouledge, 2002 (ISBN 0415280990_
- Crystal, D. The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language (2nd ed), Cambridge University Press, 2003 (ISBN 0521530334)
- Halliday, MAK. An introduction to functional grammar (2nd ed), London, Edward Arnold, 1994 (ISBN 0340557826)
- McArthur, T (ed). The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford University Press, 1992 (ISBN 019214183X)
- Robinson, Orrin, "Old English and Its Closest Relatives", Stanford Univ Press, 1992 (ISBN 0-8047-2221-8) English language Category:Languages of Fiji Category:Languages of Guam Category:Languages of Hong Kong Category:Languages of Singapore Category:Languages of the Philippines Category:Languages of the United Kingdom Category:Languages of the United States Category:Languages of Canada Category:Languages of New Zealand Category:Languages of India als:Englische Sprache ko:영어 ms:Bahasa Inggeris zh-min-nan:Eng-gí ja:英語 nb:Engelsk språk simple:English language th:ภาษาอังกฤษ

1906

1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar).

Events

- January 8 - Landslide in Haverstraw, New York kills 20
- January 31 - Earthquake in Ecuador (8.6 in Richter scale)
- February 11 - Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer nos.
- February 15 - Representatives of the Labour Representation Committee in the UK parliament take the name Parliamentary Labour Party
- March 10 - Explosion in coalmine in Courrières, France kills 1060
- March 15 - Rolls-Royce Ltd. is registered
- March 18 - Traian Vuia flies first self-propelled heavier than air aircraft
- April 7 - Mount Vesuvius erupts and devastates Naples.
- April 18 - 1906 San Francisco earthquake on the San Andreas Fault destroys much of San Francisco, California, killing at least 3000. The estimated magnitude of the earthquake is 7.8.
- June 9-June 10 - Riots in Stockholm, Ladugårsdgärden - 50 policemen injured
- June 25 - New York playboy Harry K. Thaw shoots architect Stanford White
- June 28-July 6 - Crown Jewels of Ireland stolen during this period
- September 5 - Brandbury Robinson throws the first legal forward pass in an American football game.
- September 18 - Typhoon with tsunami kills an estimated 10.000 persons in Hong Kong
- September 22 - Race riots in Atlanta, Georgia (12 killed)
- October 11 - San Francisco public school board sparks United States diplomatic crisis with Japan by ordering Japanese students to be taught in racially segregated schools.
- October 16 - The Captain of Köpenick fools a city hall in Köpenick by impersonating a Prussian officer
- October 23 - Aeroplane of Alberto Santos-Dumont takes off on Bagatelle in France and flies 60 meters (200 feet)
- October 28 - Creation of the Union Minière du Haut Katanga, a Belgian mining trust in Congo.
- November 3 - SOS becomes an international distress signal
- November 9 - US President Theodore Roosevelt leaves for a trip to Panama to inspect the construction progress of the Panama Canal (this was the first time a sitting President of the United States made an official trip outside of the United States).
- December 4 - Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans, was founded at Cornell University
- December 6 - Politic creation of district of Chimbote.
- December 24 - Reginald Fessenden makes the first radio broadcast: a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech.
- 26 December - The world's first feature film, "The Story of the Kelly Gang", is released.

Unknown dates

- Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) immunization for tuberculosis first developed
- Richard Oldham argues that the Earth has a molten interior
- Second Geneva Convention
- Construction begins on the current Great Mosque of Djenné.
- The muffuletta sandwich is invented in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Births

- January 22 - Robert E. Howard, American author (d. 1936)
- February 4 - Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (d. 1997)
- February 10 - Erik Rhodes, American actor (d. 1990)
- March 1 - Pham Van Dong, Prime Minister of Vietnam (d. 2000)
- March 16 - Henny Youngman, English born comedian (d. 1998)
- March 19 - Adolf Eichmann, Nazi official (d. 1962)
- March 31 - Sin-Itiro Tomonaga, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
- April 9 - Antal Dorati, Hungarian conductor (d. 1988)
- April 13 - Samuel Beckett, Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1989)
- April 25 - William J. Brennan, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1997)
- April 28 - Paul Sacher, Swiss conductor (d. 1999)
- May 6 - André Weil, French mathematician (d. 1998)
- May 28 - Phil Regan, American actor (d. 1996)
- May 29 - T. H. White, British writer (d. 1964)
- June 7 - Glen Gray, American saxophonist (d. 1963)
- June 15 - Léon Degrelle, Belgian fascist (d. 1994)
- June 19 - Ernst Boris Chain, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1979)
- June 20 - Catherine Cookson, English author (d. 1998)
- June 20 - Robert Trent Jones, English-born golf course designer (d. 2000)
- June 22 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh American author and aviator (d. 2001)
- June 22 - Billy Wilder screenwriter, film director and producer (d. 2002)
- June 24 - Pierre Fournier, French cellist (d. 1986)
- June 28 - Maria Goeppert-Mayer, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)
- July 1 - Estée Lauder, American cosmetics entrepreneur (d. 2004)
- July 2 - Hans Bethe, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)
- July 23 - Vladimir Prelog, Croatian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1998)
- August 5 - Wassily Leontief, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
- August 12 - Tedd Pierce, American animator (d. 1972)
- August 28 - John Betjeman, English poet (d. 1984)
- September 1 - Franz Biebl, German composer (d. 2001)
- September 4 - Max Delbrück, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1981)
- September 6 - Luis Federico Leloir, French-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1987)
- September 25 - Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer (d. 1975)
- October 10 - Rasipuram Krishnaswamy Narayan Indian novelist (d. 2001)
- October 14 - Imam Hassan al Banna, Egyptian founder of the Muslim Brotherhood (d. 1949)
- October 23 - Gertrude Ederle, American swimmer (d. 2003)
- October 27 - Earle Cabell, American politician (d. 1975)
- November 5 - Fred Lawrence Whipple, American astronomer (d. 2004)
- November 18 - Klaus Mann, German writer (d. 1949)
- November 18 - George Wald, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997)
- December 5 - Otto Preminger, Austrian-born film director (d. 1986)
- December 25 - Ernst Ruska, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1988)

Deaths

- January 29 - King Christian IX of Denmark (b. 1818)
- February 9 - Paul Laurence Dunbar, American poet and publisher (b. 1872)
- February 27 - Samuel Pierpont Langley, American astronomer, physicist, and aeronautics pioneer (b. 1834)
- March 13 - Susan B. Anthony, American civil rights and women's suffrage activist (b. 1820)
- March 29 - Slava Raskaj, Croatian painter (b. 1877)
- April 6 - Alexander Kielland, Norwegian author (b. 1849)
- April 11 - Francis Pharcellus Church, American editor and publisher (b. 1839)
- April 19 - Pierre Curie, French physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1859)
- April 24 - Mary Hunt, American temperance movement leader (b. 1830)
- May 14 - Carl Schurz, German revolutionary and American statesman (b. 1829)
- May 23 - Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian playwright (b. 1828)
- September 5 - Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist (b. 1844)
- October 22 - Paul Cézanne, French painter (b. 1839)
- December 7 - Élie Ducommun, Swiss journalist and activist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1833)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Sir Joseph John Thomson
- Chemistry - Henri Moissan
- Medicine - Camillo Golgi, Santiago Ramón y Cajal
- Literature - Giosuè Carducci
- Peace - Theodore Roosevelt

Buildings

St Mary's Star of the Sea Catholic School Balboa Pavilion in Newport Beach, California Category:1906 ko:1906년 ms:1906 ja:1906年 simple:1906 th:พ.ศ. 2449

England

:For an explanation of often-confusing terms like England, (Great) Britain and United Kingdom see British Isles (terminology). England is a nation and the largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom accounting for more than 83% of the total UK population. It occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with fellow home nations Scotland, to the north, and Wales, to the west. Elsewhere, it is bordered by the sea. England is named after the Angles, one of a number of Germanic tribes believed to have originated in Angeln in Northern Germany, who settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries. It has not had a distinct political identity since 1707, when Great Britain was established as a unified political entity; however, it has a legal identity separate from those of Scotland and Northern Ireland, as part of the entity "England and Wales;". England's largest city, London, is also the capital of the United Kingdom.

History

Main article: History of England England has been inhabited for at least 500,000 years, although the repeated Ice Ages made much of Britain uninhabitable for extended periods until as recently as 20,000 years ago. Stone Age hunter-gatherers eventually gave way to farmers and permanent settlements, with a spectacular and sophisticated megalithic civilisation arising in western England some 4,000 years ago. It was replaced around 1,500 years later by Celtic tribes migrating from Western and continental Europe, mainly from France. These tribes were known collectively as "Britons", a name bestowed by Phoenician traders — an indication of how, even at this early date, the island was part of a Europe-wide trading network. The Britons were significant players in continental politics and supported their allies in Gaul militarily during the Gallic Wars with the Roman Republic. This prompted the Romans to invade and subdue the island, first with Julius Caesar's raid in 55 BC, and then the Emperor Claudius' conquest in the following century. The whole southern part of the island — roughly corresponding to modern day England and Wales — became a prosperous part of the Roman Empire. It was finally abandoned early in the 5th century when a weakening Empire pulled back its legions to defend borders on the Continent. Unaided by the Roman army, Roman Britannia could not long resist the Germanic tribes who arrived in the 5th and 6th centuries, enveloping the majority of modern day England in a new culture and language and pushing Romano-British rule back into modern-day Wales and western extremities of England, notably Cornwall and Cumbria. Others emigrated across the channel to modern-day Brittany, thus giving it its name and language (Breton). But many of the Romano-British remained in and were assimilated into the newly "English" areas. The invaders fell into three main groups: the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles. As they became more civilised, recognisable states formed and began to merge with one another. (The most well-known state of affairs being the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy.) From time to time throughout this period, one Anglo-Saxon king, recognised as the "Bretwalda" by other rulers, had effective control of all or most of the English; so it is impossible to identify the precise moment when the Kingdom of England was unified. In some sense, real unity came as a response to the Danish Viking incursions which occupied the eastern half of "England" in the 8th century. Egbert, King of Wessex (d. 839) is often regarded as the first king of all the English, although the title "King of England" was first adopted, two generations later, by Alfred the Great (ruled 871–899). The principal legacy left behind in those territories from which the language of the Britons were displaced is that of toponyms. Many of the place-names in England and to a lesser extent Scotland are derived from celtic British names, including London, Dumbarton, York, Dorchester, Dover and Colchester. Several place-name elements are thought to be wholly or partly Brythonic in origin, particularly bre-, bal-, and -dun for hills, carr for a high rocky place, coomb for a small deep valley. Until recently it has been believed that those areas settled by the Anglo-Saxons were uninhabited at the time or the Britons had fled before them. However, genetic studies show that the British were not pushed out to the Celtic fringes – many tribes remained in what was to become England (see C. Capelli et al. A Y chromosome census of the British Isles. Current Biology 13, 979–984, (2003)). Capelli's findings strengthen the research of Steven Bassett of the University of Birmingham; his work during the 1990s suggests that much of the West Midlands was only very lightly colonised with Anglian and Saxon settlements.

This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands,—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.

William Shakespeare
Richard II (Act 2, Scene 1)

The English are great lovers of themselves, and of everything belonging to them; they think that there are no other men than themselves, and no other world but England; and whenever they see a handsome foreigner, they say that 'he looks like an Englishman', and that 'it is a great pity that he should not be an Englishmen'.

Venetian ambassador to England
Early 16th century
Charlotte Augusta Sneyd
Italian Relations of England (p. 20)

Richard II] Richard II] In 1066, William the Conqueror and the Normans conquered the existing Kingdom of England and instituted an Anglo-Norman administration and nobility who, retaining proto-French as their language for the next three hundred years, ruled as custodians over English commoners. Although the language and racial distinctions faded rapidly during the middle ages, the class system born in the Norman/Saxon divide persisted longer — arguably with traces lasting to the modern day. While Old English continued to be spoken by common folk, Norman feudal lords significantly influenced the language with French words and customs being adopted over the succeeding centuries evolving to a Romance-Germanic hybrid of Middle English widely spoken in Chaucer's time. England came repeatedly into conflict with Wales and Scotland, at the time an independent principality and an independent kingdom respectively, as its rulers sought to expand Norman power across the entire island of Britain. The conquest of Wales was achieved in the 13th century, when it was annexed to England and gradually came to be a part of that kingdom for most legal purposes, although in the modern era it is more usually thought of as a separate nation (fielding, for example, its own athletic teams). Norman power in Scotland waxed and waned over the years, with the Scots managing to maintain a varying degree of independence despite repeated wars with the English. Although it was on the whole only a moderately successful power in military terms, England became one of the wealthiest states in medieval Europe, due chiefly to its dominance in the lucrative wool market. The failure of English territorial ambitions in continental Europe prompted the kingdom's rulers to look further afield, creating the foundations of the mercantile and colonial network that was to become the British Empire. The turmoil of the Reformation embroiled England in religious wars with Europe's Catholic powers, notably Spain, but the kingdom preserved its independence as much through luck as through the skill of charismatic rulers such as Elizabeth I. Elizabeth's successor, James I was already king of Scotland (as James VI); and this personal union of the two crowns into the crown of Great Brittaine was followed a century later by the Act of Union 1707, which formally unified England, Scotland and Wales into the Kingdom of Great Britain. This later became the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801 to 1927) and then the modern state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1927 to present) For post-unification history, see history of the United Kingdom.

Politics

Main article: Politics of the United Kingdom, Government of England Since the promulgation of the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan and the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542, Wales has shared a legal identity with England as the joint entity of England and Wales. The Act of Union with the Kingdom of Scotland in 1707 created the Kingdom of Great Britain, subsuming England, Wales and Scotland into a single political entity. Scotland, along with Northern Ireland, retain separate legal systems. The duchy of Cornwall also retains some unique rights. All of Great Britain has been ruled by the government of the United Kingdom since that date, although in 1999 the first elections to the newly created Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales left England as the only part of the Union with no devolved assembly or parliament. As all legislation for England is passed by Parliament at Westminster there are some complaints about the ability of non-English Members of Parliament to influence purely English affairs. This apparent anomaly has been highlighted by both English and non-English politicians, often those opposed to devolution, and has become popularly known as the West Lothian question. Administratively, England is something of an anomaly within the UK. Unlike the other three nations, it has no local parliament or government and its administrative affairs are dealt with by a combination of the UK government, the UK parliament and a number of England-specific quangos, such as English Heritage. There are calls from some for a devolved English Parliament and from others for the dissolution of the UK and an independent England. The current Labour government favoured the establishment of regional administration, claiming that England was too large to be governed as a sub-state entity. A referendum on this issue in North East England on 4 November 2004 decisively rejected the proposal. Some criticised the English regional proposals for not decentralising enough, saying that they amounted not to devolution, but to little more than local government reorganisation, with no real power being removed from central government. The English regions would not even have had the limited powers of the Welsh Assembly, much less the tax-varying and legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament. Rather, power was simply re-allocated within the region, with little new resource allocation and no real prospects of Assemblies being able to change the pattern of regional aid. Responsibility for regional transport was added to the proposals late in the process. This was perhaps crucial in the North East, where resentment at the Barnett Formula, which delivers greater regional aid to adjacent Scotland, was a significant impetus for the North East devolution campaign. There has also been a campaign for a Cornish assembly along Welsh lines by groups such as Mebyon Kernow, which recently collected 50,000 signatures in support. Some eurosceptics believe that the establishment of English regions as administrative entities is designed to undermine the concept of English nationhood and more easily fit England into a European federal model. Conventionally the national capital of England is London, although technically it would be more exact to call London the capital of "England and Wales" given England's lack of a distinctive political identity separate from the Principality. Winchester served as the country's first national capital until some time in the late 11th century after the Norman Conquest. The City of London became England's commercial capital, while the City of Westminster (where the Royal court was located) became the political capital. These roles have, broadly speaking, been maintained to the present day.

Subdivisions

Main article: Subdivisions of England Historically, the highest level of local government in England was the county. These divisions had emerged from a range of units of old, pre-unification England, whether they were Kingdoms, such as Essex and Sussex; Duchies, such as Yorkshire, Cornwall and Lancashire or simply tracts of land given to some noble, as is the case with Berkshire. Until 1867, they were subdivided into smaller divisions called hundreds. These counties all still exist in, or near to, their original form as the traditional counties. In many places, however, they have been heavily modified or abolished outright as administrative counties. This came about due to a number of factors. The fact that the counties were so small meant, and still means, that there was no regional government able to coordinate an overarching plan for the area. This was especially true in the metropolitan areas surrounding the cities, as the county lines were usually drawn up before the industrial revolution and the mass urbanisation of England. The solution was the creation of large metropolitan counties centred on cities. These were later broken up, with several other counties, into unitary authorities, unifying the county and district/borough levels of government. London is a special case, and is the one region which currently has a representative authority as well as a directly elected mayor. The 32 London boroughs and the Corporation of London remain the local form of government in the city. Other than Greater London, the official regions are:
- North East England
- North West England
- Yorkshire and the Humber
- West Midlands
- East Midlands
- East of England
- South West England
- South East England Outside London the regions have very little power and are not accountable to elected representatives; regional authority is placed in the hands of unelected assemblies. If, as now seems unlikely, regions opt to replace these bodies with elected assemblies, local government in England will remain as variable and, some might say, as confusing as ever

Geography

Main articles: Geography of the United Kingdom, Geography of England Geography of England England comprises the central and southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain, plus offshore islands of which the largest is the Isle of Wight. It is bordered to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales. It is closer to continental Europe than any other part of Britain, divided from France only by a 38 km (24 statute mile or 21 nautical mile) sea gap. Most of England consists of rolling hills, but it is more mountainous in the north with a chain of low mountains, the Pennines, dividing east and west. The dividing line between terrain types is usually indicated by the Tees-Exe line. There is also an area of flat, low-lying marshland in the east, much of which has been drained for agricultural use. The list of England's largest cities is much debated because in British English the normal meaning of city is "a continuously built-up urban area"; these are hard to define and various other definitions are preferred by some people to boost the ranking of their own city. London is by far the largest English city. Manchester and Birmingham vie for second place. A number of other cities, mainly in the north of England, are of substantial size and influence. These include: Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, Bristol and Sheffield Using the standard U.S. city limits definition of a city the top six are: Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Liverpool and Manchester. Note that London is not on this list (Greater London is a region and the City of London is tiny), and that one of the two candidates for the status of England's "second city", Manchester, is down in sixth. In the UK, this method of ranking cities is generally used only by people whose own city is promoted by it. The Channel Tunnel, near Folkestone, links England to the European mainland. The English/French border is halfway along the tunnel. The largest harbour in England is at Poole, on the south-central coast. Internationally, it is the second largest harbour in the world, although this fact is disputed (See harbors for a list of other potential second largest harbours) The highest temperature ever recorded in England is 38.5 °C (101.3 °F) on August 10, 2003 in Kent. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/3153532.stm]. The lowest temperature ever recorded in England is -26.1 °C (-15.0 °F) on January 10, 1982 at Newport in Shropshire. [http://www.metoffice.com/climate/uk/location/england/#temperature]

Major rivers

Shropshire.]]
- Thames
- Severn
- Trent
- Humber
- Yorkshire Ouse
- Tyne
- Mersey
- Dee
- Avon Main article: Waterways in the United Kingdom

Major Conurbations

:See main article: List of towns in England The largest cities in England are much debated but according to the urban area populations (continuous built up areas) these would be the 15 largest conurbations. (Population figures taken from 2001 census) #Greater London (8,278,251) #West Midlands (2,284,093) #Greater Manchester (2,244,931) #Leeds/Bradford (1,499,465) #Tyneside (879,996) #Liverpool (816,216) #Nottingham (666,358) #Sheffield (640,720) #Bristol (551,066) #Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton (461,181) #Portsmouth (442,252) #Leicester (441,213) #Bournemouth/Poole (383,713) #Reading (369,804) #Teesside (365,323)

Economy

Main article: Economy of England

Demographics

Main articles: Demographics of England, Population of England England is both the most populous and the most ethnically diverse nation in the United Kingdom with around 49 million inhabitants, of which roughly a tenth are from non-White ethnic groups. It is one of the most densely populated countries in Europe, second only to the Netherlands. This population is made up of, and descended from, immigrants who have arrived over millennia. The principal waves of migration have been in c. 600 BC (Celts), the Roman period (garrison soldiers from throughout the Empire), 350–550 (Angles, Saxons, Jutes), 800–900 (Vikings, Danes), 1066 (Normans), 1650–1750 (European refugees and Huguenots), 1840–1850 (Irish), 1880–1940 (Irish, Jews), 1950— (Irish, Caribbeans, Africans, South Asians), 1985— (citizens of European Community member states especially Ireland, East Europeans, Iranians, Kurds, refugees). The general prosperity of England as the largest partner of the UK, has also made it a destination for economic migrants particularly from Ireland and Scotland. This segment of English homogeneous society continues to create a diverse and dynamic language that is widely used internationally. The other image of foreign ethnic components in England is still mostly seen as a legacy of the British Empire; especially the Commonwealth of Nations.

English identity

The simplest view is that an English person is someone who is from England and holds British nationality, regardless of his or her racial origin. However, inhabitants of England quite commonly refer to themselves as "British" rather than "English"; centuries of English dominance within the United Kingdom has created a situation where to be English is, as a linguist would put it, an "unmarked" state (i.e. a British person, institution, custom, city, etc. is assumed English unless specified otherwise). The English frequently include their neighbours in the general term "British" while the Scots and Welsh, proud of their separate identities, tend to be more forward about referring to themselves by one of those more specific terms. Although currently a part of England, a notable percentage of those living in Cornwall feel similarly, considering themselves Cornish first. One significant exception is in Northern Ireland, where the Unionist community tend to identify very strongly as "British" (Republicans living in the province are more likely to consider themselves "Irish"), and there is not a "Northern Ireland" or "Northern Irish" identity to the same extent as there is (e.g.) a Scottish one. A person, therefore, using the term "English" to describe him or herself (regardless of personal history) may be going out of his or her way to do so; hence he or she may also be seen (rightly or wrongly, and not necessarily pejoratively) as nationalistic. While Scottish, Welsh, Irish and Cornish patriotism are widely exhibited, specifically English patriotism has often been viewed with suspicion, and most English people feel more comfortable identifying themselves with Britain as a whole. However, this may be to avoid being seen as bullies by their neighbours. The extent to which specifically English patriotism is linked to a right-wing xenophobic agenda has also generated discomfort. The appropriation of English symbols by racist far-right organisations such as the National Front made many people uncomfortable with expressions of Englishness. In recent years, English identity has recently been a topic of debate in the national press, with many English people trying to "reclaim" the term and the flag from the far-right. See English nationalism. One notable exception to the above is in relation to sports, in particular Association football, Rugby football and to a lesser extent Cricket. Transient successes are often accompanied by a revival of the use of the "St George's Cross". While it has not yet replaced the "Union Flag" its use is on the increase. Many English people who have spent a lot of time overseas fall into the habit of referring to themselves as "English". It is the most recognisable designation by speakers of many languages, especially where their own language uses a similar word. Even in other English-speaking countries, people are often perplexed by concepts of "British" or the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". All these distinctions are only possible because there is no "English citizenship" or legal definition of Englishness. Moreover, the hazy understanding many people have of the distinction between "England" and "Britain" compounds the confusion. If in doubt, refer to an "English" person as "British": this will always be correct. It may not be as precise as "English", but it will avoid offence in the event the person is actually from a different part of Britain.

Culture

Union Flag Main article: Culture of England
- English literature
- Sir Thomas Browne
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- John Milton
- William Shakespeare
- Jane Austen
- Mary Shelley
- Charles Dickens
- Thomas Hardy
- George Orwell
- J. R. R. Tolkien
- C. S. Lewis
- Douglas Adams
- List of national parks of England and Wales
- Food and Drink
- English folklore
- English art
- English school of painting
- Music of England

Languages

Music of England.]] As its name suggests, the English language, today spoken by hundreds of millions of people around the world, originated as the language of England, where it remains the principal tongue today (although not officially designated as such). An Indo-European language in Anglo-Frisian branch of the Germanic family, it is closely related to Scots and Frisian. As the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms merged into England, "Old English" emerged; some of its literature and poetry has survived. Used by aristocracy and commoners alike before the Norman Conquest (1066), English was displaced in cultured contexts under the new regime by the Norman French language of the new Anglo-French aristocracy. Its use was confined primarily to the lower social classes while official business was conducted in a mixture of Latin and French. Over the following centuries, however, English gradually came back into fashion among all classes and for all official business except certain traditional ceremonies. (Some survive to this day.) But Middle English, as it had by now become, showed many signs of French influence, both in vocabulary and spelling. During the Renaissance, many words were coined from Latin and Greek origins; and more recent years, Modern English has extended this custom, being always remarkable for its far-flung willingness to incorporate foreign-influenced words. The law does not recognise any language as being official, but English is the only language used in England for general official business. The other national languages of the UK (Welsh, Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic) are confined to their respective nations, and only Welsh is treated by law as an equal to English (and then only for organisations which do business in Wales). The only non-Anglic native spoken language in England is the Cornish language, a Celtic language spoken in Cornwall, which became extinct in the 19th century but has been revived and is spoken in various degrees of fluency by around 3,500 people. This has no official status (unlike Welsh) and is not required for official use, but is nonetheless supported by national and local government under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Cornwall County Council has produced [http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/cornish/strategy/english/engl01.htm a draft strategy] to develop these plans. There is, however, no programme as yet for public bodies to actively promote the language. Scots is spoken by some adjacent to the Anglo-Scottish Border. Most deaf people within England speak British sign language (BSL), a sign language native to Britain. The British Deaf Association estimates that 70,000 people throughout the UK speak BSL as their first or preferred language, but does not give statistics specific to England. Like Cornish, BSL has no official status, but has been granted a degree of recognition by the government. The BBC broadcasts several of its programmes with BSL interpreters. Different languages from around the world, especially from the former British Empire and the Commonwealth of Nations, have been brought to England by immigrants. Many of these are widely spoken within ethnic minority communities, including Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Chinese and Vietnamese. These are often used by official bodies to communicate with the relevant sections of the community, particularly in big cities, but this occurs on an "as needed" basis rather than as the result of specific legislative ordinances. Other languages have also traditionally been spoken by minority populations in England, including Romany. Despite the relatively small size of the nation, there are a large number of distinct English regional accents. Those with particularly strong accents may not be easily understood elsewhere in the country.

Nomenclature

The country is named after the Angles, one of several Germanic tribes who settled the country in the 5th and 6th centuries. There are two distinct linguistic patterns for the name of the country. The majority of European languages use names akin to "England":
- "England" (Danish, German, Swedish, Norwegian)
- "Engeland" (Dutch)
- "Inglismaa" (Estonian)
- "Angleterre" (French)
- "Inghilterra" (Italian)
- "Inglaterra" (Spanish, Portuguese, Galician)
- "Anglia" (Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Albanian)
- "Anglija" (Russian, Slovene, Lithuanian, Ukrainian)
- "Engleska" (Croatian, Serbian)
- "Αγγλία" ("Anglía") (Greek)
- "Englanti" (Finnish) The Celtic names are quite different:
- "Bro-Saoz" (Breton)
- "Pow Sows" (Cornish)
- "Sasana" (Irish)
- "Sasainn" (Scottish Gaelic)
- "Lloegr" (Welsh) — but "Saeson" for the inhabitants.
- "Sostyn" (Manx Gaelic) Except for Lloegr, which is an ancient geographic term, these names are all derived from the Saxons, another family of Germanic tribes which arrived at about the same time as the Angles. See: Wiktionary:England for a further list of non-English names for England. "England" is sometimes mistakenly used to refer to the entire United Kingdom, the island of Great Britain, or the British Isles. This may offend people from other parts of the UK. Frequently the English use the less-specific "Britain" or "the UK", even when "England" is technically correct and commonly also use "England" when "Britain" would be correct. Alternative names include:
- the slang "Blighty", from the Hindustani "bila yati" meaning "foreign"
- "Albion", an ancient name popularised by Pliny the Elder and Ptolemy in the 1st century. Supposedly referring to the white (Latin alba) cliffs of Dover, this term has also been interpreted as a relative of Alba, today the Scots Gaelic name for Scotland. Whatever its origins, "Albion" originally referred to the whole island of Great Britain and is still sometimes seen that way today — but is more often used for England.
- More poetically, England has been called "this sceptred isle...this other Eden" and "this green and pleasant land", quotations respectively from the poetry of William Shakespeare (in Richard II) and William Blake (And did those feet in ancient time). The inhabitants of England are the English. The slang terms sometimes used for them include "Sassenachs" (from the Scots Gaelic), "Limeys" (in reference to the citrus fruits carried aboard English sailing vessels to prevent scurvy) and "Pom/Pommy" (used in Australian English and New Zealand English), but these may be perceived as offensive. Also see alternative words for British.

Symbols and insignia

alternative words for British.]] The two traditional symbols of England are the St. George's cross (the English flag) and the Three Lions coat of arms (see above), both derived from the great Norman powers that formed the monarchy – the Cross of Aquitaine and the Lions of Anjou. The three lions were first definitely used by Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) in the late 12th century (although it is also possible that Henry I may have bestowed it on his son Henry before then). Historian Simon Schama has argued that the Three Lions are the true symbol of England because the English throne descended down the Angevin line. A red cross acted as a symbol for many Crusaders in the 12th and 13th centuries. It became associated with St George and England, along with other countries and cities (such as Georgia, Milan and the Republic of Genoa), which claimed him as their patron saint and used his cross as a banner. It remained in national use until 1707, when the Union Flag (which English and Scottish ships had used at sea since 1606) was adopted for all purposes to unite the whole of Great Britain under a common flag. The flag of England no longer has much of an official role, but it is widely flown by Church of England properties and at sporting events. (Paradoxically, the latter is a fairly recent development; until the late 20th century, it was commonplace for fans of English teams to wave the Union Flag, rather than the St George's Cross). The rose is widely recognised as the national flower of England and is used in a variety of contexts. Predominantly, this is a red rose (which also symbolises Lancashire), such as the badge of the English Rugby Union team. However, a white rose (which also symbolises Yorkshire) or a "tudor rose" (symbolising the end of the War of the Roses) may also be used on different occasions. The Three Lions badge performs a similar role for the English national football team and English national cricket team.

National anthems

Although England does not have an official anthem of its own, the following are widely regarded as English national hymns:
- "Jerusalem:" Words by William Blake, Music by Hubert Parry
- "I Vow to Thee, My Country": Words by Cecil Spring-Rice, Music by Gustav Holst
- "Land of Hope and Glory": Words by A C Benson, Music by Edward Elgar (although this refers to all of Great Britain, not only England)
- "Nimrod": Music by Edward Elgar "God Save The Queen" (the national anthem for the UK as a whole) is usually played for English sporting events (e.g. football matches), although "Land of Hope and Glory" has also been used as the English anthem for the Commonwealth Games. "Rule Britannia" despite being a song about Britain as a whole was often used for the English national football team when they play against another of the home nations but more recently "God Save The Queen" has been used by both the rugby and football teams. Many believe that English teams should use their own anthems, most popular of which is the use of "Jerusalem".

References

- [http://www.statistics.gov.uk Office of National Statistics]

References

External links

- [http://www.enjoyengland.com/ The official website of the English Tourist Board — Enjoy England]
- [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/nations/ BBC Nations]: articles on England and her neighbours Category:Monarchies Category:European countries als:England zh-min-nan:England ko:잉글랜드 ms:England ja:イングランド simple:England th:แคว้นอังกฤษ

Football at the 1908 Summer Olympics

At the 1908 Summer Olympics in London, England, an official football tournament was contested for the first time. Eight teams entered (two from France), although Hungary and Bohemia withdrew before the start. Great Britain was represented by the England national amateur team. Denmark's Sophus "Krølben" Nielsen set a record by scoring 10 goals in a 17-1 win against France.

Football (soccer), Men

Pos	Athlete
1	(GBR)
Horace Bailey, Walter Corbett, Herbert Smith, Kenneth Hunt, Frederick Chapman, Robert Hawkes, Arthur Berry, Vivian Woodward, Henry Stapley, Clyde Purnell and Harold Hardman
2	(DEN)
Ludvig Drescher, Charles Buchwald, Harald Hansen, Harald Bohr, Kristian Middelboe, Nils Middelboe, Oscar Nielsen-Nørland, August Lindgren, Sophus Nielsen, Vilhelm Wolffhagen, Bjørn Rasmussen, P. Marius Andersen and Johannes Gandil
3	(NED)
Reinier Beeuwkes, Karel Heijting, Louis Otten, Johannes Sol, Johannes de Korver, Emil Mundt, Jan-Herman Welcker, Everardus Snethlage, Gerard Reeman, Jan Thomée, Georges de Bruyn Kops and Johannes Kok

Results

References

- [http://www.rsssf.com/tableso/ol1908f.html RSSSF - 1908 Olympic Games] Category:1908 Summer Olympics

1909

1909 (MCMIX) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar).

Events

January – March

- January 16 - Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.
- January 28 - United States troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish-American War.
- February 12 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.
- February 23 - The Silver Dart makes the first powered flight in Canada and the British Empire.
- February 24 - The Hudson Motor Car Company is founded.
- March 4 - End of term for Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States. He is succeeded by William Howard Taft.
- March 18 - Einar Dessau uses a short-wave radio transmitter becoming the first to broadcast as a ham radio operator.
- March 23 - Theodore Roosevelt leaves New York for a post-presidency safari in Africa. The trip was sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.
- March 31 - Serbia accepts Austrian control over Bosnia-Herzegovina.

April – June

- April 6 - Robert Peary allegedly reaches the North Pole.
- April 27 - Sultan of the Ottoman Empire Abdul Hamid II is overthrown and succeeded by his brother, Muhammad V. He leaves the country the next day.
- May - Choosing a vocation by Frank Parsons (died 1908) is published.
- June 1 - The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition opens in Seattle.
- June 2 - Alfred Deakin becomes Prime Minister of Australia for the third time.
- June 9 – Alice Huyler Ramsey, a 22-year-old housewife and mother from Hackensack, New Jersey, became the first woman to drive across the United States. With three female companions, none of whom could drive a car, for fifty-nine days she drove a Maxwell automobile the 3,800 miles from Manhattan, New York to San Francisco, California.
- June 15 - Representatives from England, Australia and South Africa meet at Lords and form the Imperial Cricket Conference.
- June 22 - Construction begins on the Cape Cod Canal, which would separate Cape Cod from mainland Massachusetts, United States.

July – September

- July 13 - Gold discovered near Cochrane, Ontario.
- July 16 - A revolution forces Mohammad Ali Shah, Persian Shah of the Qajar dynasty to abdicate in favor of his son Ahmad Shah Qajar. He proceeds in leaving Persia for Imperial Russia, reportedly seeking the assistance of Nicholas II of Russia in regaining the throne.
- July 25 - Louis Bleriot is the first man to fly across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air craft.
- August 8 - Launching of The Rosicrucian Fellowship at Seattle (Washington). Later, in October 28 1911, its international headquarters, till today, were physically launched at Mount Ecclesia, Oceanside (California, United States) and the Healing Temple "The Ecclesia" was lauched in December 25 1920.
- September 9 - Comet Halley first recorded on a photographic plate.
- September 10-21 – Hurricane sweeps over Louisiana and Mississippi - 350 dead
- September 25 – Auroras seen in Singapore.

October – December

- October 2 - The first rugby football match played in Twickenham
- November 11 - US Navy founds a navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
- November 13 - Ballinger-Pinchot scandal begins: Collier's magazine accuses US Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger of questionable dealings in Alaskan coal fields.
- November 18 - Two United States warships are sent to Nicaragua after 500 revolutionaries (including two Americans) are executed by order of dictator José Santos Zelaya.
- November - First edition of Max Heindel's magnum opus The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception.
- December 4 - The University of Bristol was founded and received its Royal Charter.
- December 17 - Léopold II of Belgium dies and is succeeded by his nephew Albert I of Belgium

Month/date unknown

- William Dickson Boyce, a United States businessman visiting London, England, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is introduced to members of the Scouting movement. The following year Boyce becomes founder of the Boy Scouts of America.
- Karl Landsteiner develops system of blood groups.
- Leon's, a Canadian furniture chain is first opened.
- Britain introduces Minimum Wage Laws.
- Old age pensions in Britain
- The laboratory of Paul Ehrlich creates the Salvarsan treatment for syphilis
- Mohorovičić discontinuity discovered
- Centennial anniversary of Miami University (Ohio)
- American Issue Publishing House of Anti-Saloon League incorporated.

Births

January

- January 1 - Barry Goldwater, American politician (d. 1998)
- January 3 - Victor Borge, Danish entertainer (d. 2000)
- January 5 - Stephen Cole Kleene, American mathematician (d. 1994)
- January 8 - Willy Millowitsch, German actor (d. 1999)
- January 13 - Marinus van der Lubbe, Dutch communist accused of setting fire to the Reichstag (d. 1934)
- January 15 - Jean Bugatti, German-born automobile designer (d. 1939)
- January 15 - Gene Krupa, American drummer (d. 1973)
- January 16 - Clement Greenberg, American art critic (d. 1994)
- January 19 - Hans Hotter, German bass-baritone (d. 2003)
- January 22 - Ann Sothern, American actress (d. 2001)
- January 22 - U Thant, Burmese United Nations Secretary General (d. 1974)
- January 24 - Martin Lings, British Islamic scholar (d. 2005)

February

- February 3 - Simone Weil, French philosopher (d. 1943)
- February 9 - Carmen Miranda, Portuguese-born actress and singer (d. 1955)
- February 9 - Dean Rusk, United States Secretary of State (d. 1994)
- February 11 - Max Baer, American boxer and actor (d. 1959)
- February 11 - Joseph Mankiewicz, American filmmaker (d. 1993)
- February 15 - Guillermo Gorostiza Paredes, Spanish footballer (d. 1966)
- February 15 - Miep Gies, Dutch friend and biographer of Anne Frank
- February 18 - Wallace Stegner, American writer (d. 1993)
- February 24 - August Derleth, American writer (d. 1971)
- February 26 - King Talal of Jordan (d.1972)

March

- March 1 - David Niven, English actor (d. 1983)
- March 2 - Mel Ott, baseball player (d. 1958)
- March 4 - Harry Helmsley, American real estate entrepreneur (d. 1997)
- March 19 - Louis Hayward, South African-born actor (d. 1985)
- March 22 - Gabrielle Roy, Canadian author (d. 1983)
- March 24 - Clyde Barrow, American outlaw (d. 1934)
- March 27 - Golo Mann, German historian (d. 1994)

April

- April 13 - Stanislaw Marcin Ulam, Polish-born mathematician (d. 1984)
- April 22 - Rita Levi-Montalcini, Italian neurologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- April 30 - Queen Juliana of the Netherlands (d. 2004)

May

- May 7 - Edwin H. Land, American camera inventor (d. 1991)
- May 10 - Mother Maybelle Carter, American musician (d. 1978)
- May 15 - James Mason, British actor (d. 1984)
- May 18 - Fred Perry, English tennis player (d. 1995)
- May 30 - Benny Goodman, American musician (d. 1986)

June

- June 6 - Isaiah Berlin, Russian historian of ideas (d. 1997)
- June 7 - Jessica Tandy, English actress (d. 1994)
- June 14 - Burl Ives, American singer (d. 1995)
- June 17 - Elmer Lee Andersen, Governor of Minnesota (d. 2004)
- June 20 - Errol Flynn, Australian actor (d. 1959)
- June 26 - Colonel Tom Parker, Dutch-born celebrity manager (d. 1997)

July

- July 18 - Mohammed Daoud Khan, President of Afghanistan (d. 1978)
- July 28 - Malcolm Lowry, British novelist (d. 1957)
- July 30 - C. Northcote Parkinson, British historian and author (d. 1993)

August

- August 9 - Adam von Trott zu Solz, German lawyer and diplomat (d. 1944)
- August 25 - Ruby Keeler, Canadian singer and actress (d. 1993)
- August 25 - Michael Rennie, English actor (d. 1971)
- August 26 - Jim Davis, American actor (d. 1981)

September

- September 7 - Elia Kazan, Hungarian-born film director (d. 2003)
- September 14 - Peter Scott, British ornithologist and painter (d. 1989)
- September 21 - Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanian politician (d. 1972)
- September 24 - Carl Sigman, American songwriter (d. 2000)
- September 28 - Al Capp, American cartoonist (d. 1979)

October

- October 14 - Bernd Rosemeyer, German race car driver (d. 1938)
- October 24 - Bill Carr, American athlete (d. 1966)
- October 28 - Francis Bacon, British painter (d. 1992)

November

- November 4 - Skeeter Webb, baseball player (d. 1986)
- November 10 - Paweł Jasienica, Polish historian (d. 1970)
- November 18 - Johnny Mercer, American songwriter (d. 1976)
- November 23 - Nigel Tranter, Scottish historian and writer (d. 2000)
- November 24 - Gerhard Gentzen, German mathematician (d. 1945)
- November 27 - James Agee, American writer (d. 1955)

December

- December 14 - Edward Lawrie Tatum, American geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1975)
- December 20 - Vagn Holmboe, Danish composer (d. 1996)
- December 22 - Alan Carney, American actor (d. 1973)
- December 23 - Barney Ross, American boxer (d. 1967)
- December 23 - Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 2000)
- December 23 - Giulio Racah, Israeli mathematician and physicist (d. 1965)

Deaths

- January 12 - Hermann Minkowski, German mathematician (b. 1864)
- January 14 - Arthur William a Beckett, British journalist (b. 1844)
- April 10 - Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet (b. 1837)
- May 19 - Isaac Albéniz, Spanish composer (b. 1860)
- June 24 - Sarah Orne Jewett, American writer (b. 1849)
- August 27 - Emil Christian Hansen, Danish fermentation physiologist (b. 1842)
- September 4 - Clyde Fitch, American dramatist (b. 1865)
- October 26 - Prince Hirobumi Ito, Japanese governor of Korea (assassinated) (b. 1841)
- December 17 - Léopold II of Belgium (b. 1835)

Date unknown

- Gideon T. Stewart, American educator and politician (b. 1824)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Guglielmo Marconi, Karl Ferdinand Braun for the development of wireless telegraphy (radio)
- Chemistry - Wilhelm Ostwald for his work on catalysis, chemical equilibria, and reaction velocities
- Medicine - Emil Theodor Kocher for his work on the physiology, pathology, and surgery of the thyroid gland
- Literature - Selma Lagerlöf
- Peace - Auguste Marie Francois Beernaert and Paul-Henri-Benjamin d'Estournelles de Constant Category:1909 ko:1909년 ms:1909 ja:1909年 simple:1909 th:พ.ศ. 2452

Argentine Football Association

The Argentine Football Association (AFA) (Spanish: Asociación del Fútbol Argentino) is the governing body of football in Argentina. It organises the Argentine football league and the Argentina national football team. It is based in Buenos Aires. Secondary, it also organises the amateur leagues for women, children, young, Futsal, and other local leagues.

A bit of history

The Argentine Association Football League (in english) was founded on February 21 1893, to be later renamed Argentine Football Association in 1903, and translated into Asociación Argentina de Football (Argentine Football Association) in 1912. The parallel Federación Argentina de Football (Argentine Football Federation), funded in 1912, joined the Asociación Argentina de Football, as well as did the 1919 funded Asociacion Amateurs de Football (Amateur Football Association) in 1926. In 1926 it was again renamed to Asociación Amateur de Argentina de Football (Argentine Amateur Football Association), but with the professionalization of the sport in 1931 it was named Asociación de Football Amateur y Profesionales (Amateur and Professional Football Association). The Liga Argentina de Football (Argentine Football League), funded in 1931 merged with the Asociación de Football Amateur y Profesionales on November 3, 1934, into what is still today the Asociación de Fútbol Argentino (Argentine Football Association).

External links

- [http://www.afa.org.ar/ Official site] (in Spanish and English)
- [http://www.futbolargentino.com.ar/historia/ Argentine Football History] (Spanish)
- [http://www.futbolinterior.com.ar. Argentina leagues] (Spanish)
- [http://www.ascensodelinterior.com.ar Information Argentina leagues] Argentina Category:Football in Argentina

1912

1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday.

Events

January-March

- January 1 - Establishment of Republic of China.
- January 5 - Prague Party Conference
- January 6 - New Mexico is admitted as the 47th U.S. state.
- January 17 - British polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott and a team of four begin the second expedition to reach the South Pole.
- January 23 - The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague.
- February 8 - Mexican Revolution - Military rebellion against the rule of Francisco Madero begins in Mexico City. Battles last for 10 days
- February 12 - Republic of China adopts the Gregorian calendar
- February 14 - Arizona is admitted as the 48th U.S. state.
- February 14 - In Groton, Connecticut, the first diesel-powered submarine is commissioned.
- February 18 - Francisco Madero is forced to resign - battle ends. All members of Madero's government are arrested.
- February 19 - Prizes are included in Cracker Jack candy boxes for the first time
- February 22 - Francisco Madero and Pino Suarez are shot, allegedly when they "tried to escape"
- March 1 - Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump from a moving airplane.
- March 1 - Georg Ritter von Trapp, head of the famous Austrian singing family memorialized in the musical The Sound of Music marries Agathe
- March 5 - Italian forces are the first to use airships for a military purpose by using them for reconnaissance west of Tripoli behind Turkish lines.
- March 7 - Roald Amundsen announces discovery of the South Pole
- March 7 - French aviator Henri Seimet makes the first non-stop flight from Paris to London in three hours
- March 12 - The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts) are founded.
- March 16 - Lawrence Oates, ill member of Scott's South Pole expedition leaves the tent saying, "I am just going outside and may be some time"
- March 27 - Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo gives 3,000 cherry blossom trees to be planted in Washington, D.C. to symbolize the friendship between the two countries.
- March 30 - France establishes a protectorate over Morocco.

April-September

- April 15 - Sinking of the RMS Titanic.
- April 17 - Solar eclipse in Europe.
- April 19 - United States Senate inquiry into the Titanic sinking begins.
- May 2 - British Board of Trade inquiry into the sinking of Titanic begins.
- May 3 - The first victims of the RMS Titanic are buried in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
- May 5 - The 1912 Summer Olympics open in Stockholm, Sweden.
- May 13 - In the United Kingdom, the Royal Flying Corps (forerunner of the Royal Air Force) is established.
- June 4 - Fire in Constantinople - 1120 buildings destroyed
- June 5 - US Marines land on Cuba
- June 6-June 8 - Eruption of Novarupta in Alaska, second largest volcanic eruption in historic time.
- June 8 - Carl Laemmle incorporated Universal Pictures.
- July 12 - Greek island of Icana declares independence (Greece annexes it in November)
- July 19 - A meteorite with an estimated mass of 190 kg exploded over the town of Holbrook in Navajo County, Arizona causing approximately 16,000 pieces of debris to rain down on the town.
- July 30 - the Meiji Emperor of Japan, dies. He is succeeded by his son Yoshihito, the Taisho Emperor. In Japanese History, the event marks the end of the Meiji period and the beginning of the Taisho Era.
- August 12 - Sultan Abd al-Hafiz of Morocco abdicates.
- August 25 - Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist party is founded.
- September 25 - Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism founded in New York,_New York.

October-November

- October 8 - First Balkan War begins: Montenegro declares war against Turkey.
- October 14 - While campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, former president Theodore Roosevelt is shot by saloonkeeper William Schrank. With a fresh flesh wound and the bullet still in him, Roosevelt still delivers his scheduled speech.
- October 16 - Bulgarian pilots Radul Minkov and Prodan Toprakchiev perform the first bombing with an airplane in history at the railway station of Karaagac near Edirne against Turkey.
- November 5 - U.S. presidential election, 1912: Democratic challenger Woodrow Wilson wins a landslide victory over Republican incumbent William Howard Taft. Taft's base was undercut by Progressive Party candidate (and former Republican) Theodore Roosevelt, who finished second, ahead of Taft.
- November 7 - The Deutsche Opernhaus (now Deutsche Oper Berlin) opened in the Berlin neighborhood of Charlottenburg with a production of Beethoven's Fidelio.
- November 11 - Chios declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire.
- November 24 - Mine explosion in Hokkaido, Japan - 245 dead
- November 27 - Spain declares a protectorate over the north shore of Morocco.
- November 28 - Albania declares its independence from the Ottoman Empire.

December

- December 3 - First Balkan War ends temporarily - Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia (the Balkan League) sign an armistice with Turkey, ending the two-month long war.

Unknown dates

- Sea Scouting begins under the aegis of the Boy Scouts of America.
- Kazimierz Funk identifies vitamins.
- The first blues song, "The Memphis Blues," is published.
- Alfred Wegener proposes the theory of continental drift.
- Mount Katmai in Alaska explodes.
- Piltdown Man presented in Britain.
- British treasure hunters try to drain Lake Guatavita to find gold – they find nothing.
- African National Congress

Births

January-February

- January 1 - Kim Philby, British spy (d. 1988)
- January 3 - Armand Lohikoski, Finnish director (d. 2005)
- January 6 - Jacques Ellul, French philosopher (d. 1994)
- January 7 - Charles Addams, American cartoonist (d. 1988)
- January 8 - José Ferrer, Puerto Rican actor (d. 1992)
- January 19 - Leonid Kantorovich, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
- January 21 - Konrad Emil Bloch, German-born biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2000)
- January 28 - Jackson Pollock, American painter (d. 1956)
- January 30 - Barbara W. Tuchman, American historian (d. 1989)
- February 4 - Erich Leinsdorf, Austrian conductor (d. 1993)
- February 6 - Eva Braun, Adolf Hitler's mistress (d. 1945)
- February 11 - Roy Fuller, English poet and novelist (d. 1991)
- February 19 - Stan Kenton, American musician (d. 1979)
- February 20 - Pierre Boulle, French author (d. 1994)
- February 27 - Lawrence Durrell, British writer (d. 1990)

March-April

- March 5 - David Astor, British newspaper publisher (d. 2001)
- March 8 - Preston Smith, Governor of Texas (d. 2003)
- March 12 - Irving Layton, Canadian poet
- March 14 - Les Brown, American band leader (d. 2001)
- March 15 - Lightnin' Hopkins, American musician (d. 1982)
- March 16 - Pat Nixon, First Lady of the United States (d. 1993)
- March 17 - Bayard Rustin, American civil rights activist (d. 1987)
- March 18 - Lucien Laurin, Canadian horse trainer (d. 2000)
- March 22 - Karl Malden, American actor
- March 23 - Betty Astell, British actress (d. 2005)
- March 23 - Wernher von Braun, German-born physicist and engineer (d. 1977)
- March 27 - James Callaghan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 2005)
- April 8 - Sonja Henie, Norwegian figure skater (d. 1969)
- April 12 - Walt Gorney, American actor (d. 2004)
- April 15 - Kim Il Sung, President of North Korea (d. 1994)
- April 19 - Glenn T. Seaborg, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
- April 22 - Kathleen Ferrier, British contralto (d. 1953)
- April 26 - A. E. van Vogt, Canadian-born writer (d. 2000)
- April 28 - Odette Sansom, French World War II heroine (d. 1995)

May-July

- May 3 - Virgil Fox, American organist (d. 1980)
- May 9 - Pedro Armendáriz, Mexican actor (d. 1963)
- May 9 - Per Imerslund, "The aryan idol" (d. 1943)
- May 11 - Foster Brooks, American actor and comedian (d. 2001)
- May 12 - Archibald Cox, Watergate special prosecutor (d. 2001)
- May 14 - Ben Hogan, American golfer (d. 1997)
- May 16 - Studs Terkel, American writer and broadcaster
- May 18 - Perry Como, American singer (d. 2001)
- May 18 - Walter Sisulu, South African anti-apartheid activist (d. 2003)
- May 21 - Monty Stratton, baseball player (d. 1982)
- May 22 - Herbert C. Brown, English-born chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2004)
- May 23 - Jean Françaix, French composer (d. 1997)
- May 23 - John Payne, American actor (d. 1989)
- May 25 - Princess Dukhye of Korea (d. 1989)
- May 27 - Sam Snead, American golfer (d. 2002)
- May 28 - Patrick White, Australian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1990)
- May 30 - Julius Axelrod, American biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)
- May 31 - Alfred Deller, English countertenor (d. 1979)
- June 6 - Maria Montez, Dominican actress (d. 1951)
- June 23 - Alan Turing, British mathematician (d. 1954)
- June 25 - William T. Cahill, American politician (d. 1996)
- June 26 - Jay Silverheels, American actor (d. 1980)
- June 27 - Chen Kenmin, Japanese chef (d. 1990)
- June 30 - Ludwig Bölkow, German aeronautical engineer (d. 2003)
- July 1 - David R. Brower, American environmentalist (d. 2000)
- July 14 - Woody Guthrie, American folk musician (d. 1969)
- July 17 - Art Linkletter, American television host
- July 31 - Milton Friedman, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
- July 31 - Irv Kupcinet, American newspaper columnist (d. 2003)

August-November

- August 9 - Anne Brown, American soprano
- August 10 - Jorge Amado de Faria, Brazilian author (d. 2001)
- August 11 - Thanom Kittikachorn, Prime Minister of Thailand (d. 2004)
- August 11 - Norman Levinson, American mathematician (d. 1975)
- August 13 - Salvador Luria, Italian-born biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1991)
- August 15 - Julia Child, American chef (d. 2004)
- August 16 - Ted Drake, English footballer (d. 1995)
- August 16 - Wendy Hiller, English actress (d. 2003)
- August 23 - Gene Kelly, American actor (d. 1996)
- August 25 - Erich Honecker, East German leader (d. 1994)
- August 30 - Edward Mills Purcell, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1997)
- August 30 - Nancy Wake, New Zealand World War II heroine
- September 5 - John Cage, American composer (d. 1992)
- September 11 - David Packard, American electrical engineer (d. 1996)
- September 19 - Kurt Sanderling, German conductor
- September 21 - Chuck Jones, American animator (d. 2002)
- September 22 - Martha Scott, American actress (d. 2003)
- September 24 - Don Porter, American actor (d. 1997)
- September 29 - Michelangelo Antonioni, Italian film director
- October 5 - Karl Hass, Nazi war criminal (d. 2004)
- October 5 - Kristina Söderbaum, German actress (d. 2001)
- October 17 - Pope John Paul I (d. 1978)
- October 21 - Georg Solti, Hungarian conductor (d. 1997)
- October 22 - Johan Hendrik Weidner, Belgian World War II resistance fighter (d. 1994)
- October 25 - Minnie Pearl, American commedienne (d. 1996)
- October 27 - Conlon Nancarrow, American composer (d. 1997)
- November 4 - Vadim Salmanov, Russian composer (d. 1978)
- November 10 - Birdie Tebbetts, baseball player and manager (d. 1999)
- November 11 - Larry LaPrise American songwriter (d. 1996)
- November 14 - Barbara Hutton, American socialite (d. 1979)
- November 14 - T. Y. Lin, Chinese-born civil engineer (d. 2003)
- November 19 - George Emil Palade, Romanian cell biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- November 21 - Eleanor Powell, American actress and dancer (d. 1982)
- November 26 - Eugene Ionesco, Romanian-born playwright (d. 1994)

December

- December 11 - Carlo Ponti, Italian film producer
- December 12 - Henry Armstrong, American boxer (d. 1988)
- December 25 - Natalino Otto, Italian singer (d. 1969)
- December 27 - Conroy Maddox, British painter (d. 2005)

Deaths

- January 28 - Gustave de Molinari, Belgian economist (b. 1819)
- February 16 - Nikolai of Japan, Eastern Orthodox monk and saint (b. 1836)
- February 25 - Guillaume IV, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (b. 1852)
- March 1 - George Grossmith, English actor and comic writer (b. 1847)
- March 29 - Robert Falcon Scott, British Antarctic explorer (froze to death) (b. 1868)
- March 30 - Karl May, German author (b. 1842)
- April 15 - Victims of the sinking of the RMS Titanic:
- Edward J. Smith, ship's captain (b. 1850)
- John Jacob Astor IV, American businessman (b. 1864)
- Archibald Butt, American presidential aide (b. 1865)
- Benjamin Guggenheim, American businessman (b. 1865)
- William Thomas Stead, English journalist (b. 1849)
- Isidor Straus, German-American owner of Macy's (b. 1845)
- Thomas Andrews, Jr., Titanic shipbuilder (b.1873)
- May 14 - August Strindberg, Swedish playwright and painter (b. 1849)
- May 14 - Frederick VIII, King of Denmark (b. 1843)
- May 25 - Austin Lane Crothers, American politician (b. 1860)
- May 30 - Wilbur Wright, American aviation pioneer (b. 1867)
- June 12 - Frédéric Passy, French economist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1822)
- July 1 - Harriet Quimby, American pilot (b. 1875)
- July 2 - Tom Richardson, English cricketer (b. 1870)
- July 30 - Meiji Emperor of Japan (b. 1852)
- August 7 - François-Alphonse Forel, Swiss hydrologist (b. 1841)
- August 8 - Ross Winn, American anarchist writer and publisher (b. 1871)
- October 6 - Auguste Marie Francois Beernaert, Belgian statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1829)
- October 24 - Mykola Lysenko, Ukrainian composer (b. 1842)
- October 30 - James S. Sherman, Vice President of the United States (b. 1855)
- November 10 - Louis Cyr, Canadian strongman (b. 1863)
- November 28 - Walter Benona Sharp, American oil pioneer (b. 1870)
- December 23 - Otto Schoetensack, German anthropologist (b. 1850)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Nils Gustaf Dalén
- Chemistry - Victor Grignard, Paul Sabatier
- Medicine - Alexis Carrel
- Literature - Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann
- Peace - Elihu Root Category:1912 ko:1912년 ms:1912 ja:1912年 simple:1912 th:พ.ศ. 2455

1913

1913 (MCMXIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday. (click on link for calendar)

Events

January-March

- January 30 - House of Lords rejects Irish Home Rule Bill
- February 1 - New York City's Grand Central Terminal opens as the world's largest train station.
- February 3 - The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect income tax.
- February 3 - Trial of the remnants of the Bonnot gang begins.
- February 17 - The Armory Show opens in New York City. It displays works of artists who are to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th century
- February 27 - Freezing weather stops everything in Balkans
- March - Outpouring of monarchist sentiment in Russia when the House of Romanov celebrate the 300th anniversary of their succession to the throne
- March 4 - End of term for President of the United States William Howard Taft. He is succeeded by Thomas Woodrow Wilson.
- March 12 - Canberra becomes the federal capital of Australia
- March 13 - Mexican Revolution - Pancho Villa returns to Mexico from his self-imposed exile in USA
- March 18 - George I of Greece is assassinated.
- March 20 - Sung Chiao-jen, a founder of the Chinese nationalist party (KMT) is wounded in an assassination attempt and dies 2 days after.
- March 25 - Venustiano Carranza announces his Plan of Guadaloupe and begins his rebellion against Victoriano Huerta's government as the head of "Constitutionals"
- March 26 - Balkan War: Bulgarian forces take Adrianople.

April-August

- April 8 - Passing of the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, dictating the direct election of senators.
- April 24 - Woolworth Building opening ceremony.
- May 13 - Igor Sikorsky becomes the first person to pilot a four engine aircraft.
- May 14 - New York Governor William Sulzer approves the charter for the Rockefeller Foundation which begins operations with a $100,000,000 donation from John D. Rockefeller.
- May 29 - Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring is premiered in Paris
- May 30 - First Balkan War: A peace treaty is signed in London ending the war.
- June - First edition of the Christian Esoteric magazine Rays from the Rose Cross in the United States; still issued bimonthly till today.
- June 4 - Emily Davison, a suffragette, runs out in front of the king's horse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby. She is trampled and dies a few days later, never having regained consciousness.
- June 15 - Bud Bagsak Massacre: US troops under General John 'Black Jack' Pershing kill at least 2,000 relatively defenceless men, women and children, Bud Bagsak, Philippines.
- June 24 - Joseph Cook becomes the 6th Prime Minister of Australia.
- July 3 - Commemeration of the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg draws thousands of United States Civil War veterans and their families to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
- July 10 - Death Valley, California hits 134 °F (~56.7 °C) which is the highest temperature recorded in the United States (as of 2004).
- August 4 - In China, province of Chungking declares independence. Chinese republican forces crush the rebellion in a couple of weeks
- August 13 - Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley in Sheffield.
- August 15 - Start of Dublin Lockout, all trade union members dismissed
- August 20 - 700 feet above Buc, France, parachutist Adolphe Pegond becomes the first person to jump from an airplane and land safely.

September-December

- September 23 - French aviator Roland Garros flies over the Mediterranean
- September 29 - Rudolf Diesel disappears en route to Britain
- September 29 - Pancho Villa is elected commander of the "Northern Division" of the Constitutionals
- October 1 - Villa's troops take Torreon after a three-day battle when government troops retreat
- October 10 - US President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike thus ending construction on the Panama Canal.
- October 19 - Founding of the DLRG (German Life Saving Society)
- November 5 - The insane king Otto of Bavaria is deposed by his cousin, Prince Regent Ludwig, who assumed the title Ludwig III.
- November 6 - Mohandas Gandhi is arrested while leading a march of Indian miners in South Africa.
- November 7- November 12 - The Great Lakes Storm of 1913 kills over 250.
- December 1 - Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line, reducing chassis assembly time from 12½ hours in October to 2 hours, 40 minutes (although Ford was not the first to use an assembly line, his successful adoption of one did spark an era of mass production).
- December 1 - Greece annexes Crete
- December 12 - Emperor of Ethiopia Menelik II dies and is succeeded by his grandson Iyasu V of Ethiopia.
- December 12 - Vincencio Peruggia tries to sell Mona Lisa in the Florence and is arrested
- December 30 - Italy returns Mona Lisa to France
- December 23 - Federal Reserve is created Woodrow Wilson

Unknown Dates

- Female suffrage in Norway
- British steamship Calvadas disappears in the Marmora Sea with 200 hands
- First crossword puzzle appears in the World newspaper
- Black Chamber, forerunner of NSA, founded
- de Sitter: speed of light is independent of speed of source
- Sagnac: speed of light depends on speed of rotating platform
- Painting September Morn creates a national sensation in U.S.
- Camel Cigarettes were introduced
- Ela Hockaday founds The Hockaday School
- First publication of Journal of Ecology
- National Temperance Council founded to promote temperance movement

Births

January-February

- January 2 - Anna Lee, English actress (d. 2004)
- January 6 - Edward Gierek Polish polititian, (d. 2001)
- January 6 - Loretta Young, American actress (d. 2000)
- January 9 - Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States (d. 1994)
- January 15 - Lloyd Bridges, American actor (d. 1998)
- January 18 - Danny Kaye, American actor (d. 1987)
- January 22 - Carl F. H. Henry, American theologian and publisher (d. 2003)
- January 24 - Norman Dello Joio, American composer
- January 25 - Witold Lutosławski, Polish composer (d. 1994)
- January 29 - Peter von Zahn, German journalist and writer (d. 2001)
- February 2 - Poul Reichhardt, Danish actor (d. 1985)
- February 4 - Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist (d. 2005)
- February 6 - Mary Leakey, British anthropologist (d. 1996)
- February 13 - George Barker, British poet (d. 1991)
- February 14 - Mel Allen, American sports reporter (d. 1996)
- February 14 - Jimmy Hoffa, American labor leader (disappeared) (d. 1975)
- February 25 - Jim Backus, American actor (d. 1989)
- February 25 - Gert Fröbe, German actor (d. 1988)
- February 27 - Paul Ricoeur, French philosopher (d. 2005)
- February 27 - Irwin Shaw, American writer (d. 1984)

March-June

- March 1 - Richard S.R. Fitter, British writer (d. 2005)
- March 4 - John Garfield, American actor (d. 1952)
- March 13 - William Casey, American Central Intelligence Agency director (d. 1987)
- March 13 - Sergey Mikhalkov, Russian writer and lyricist
- March 18 - René Clément, French film director (d. 1996)
- March 21 - George Abecassis, English race car driver (d. 1991)
- March 29 - R. S. Thomas, Welsh poet (d. 2000)
- March 30 - Richard Helms, American Central Intelligence Agency director (d. 2002)
- March 30 - Frankie Laine, American singer
- April 3 - Per Borten, Premier of Norway (d. 2005)
- April 27 - Philip Hauge Abelson, American physicist, writer, and editor (d. 2004)
- May 1 - Louis Nye, American comedian and actor (d. 2005)
- May 1 - Walter Susskind, Czech conductor (d. 1980)
- May 8 - Saima Harmaja, Finnish poet (d. 1937)
- May 11 - Robert Jungk, Austrian journalist (d. 1994)
- May 13 - William R. Tolbert, Jr., Liberian president (d. 1980)
- May 16 - Woody Herman, American musician and band leader (d. 1987)
- May 20 - William Hewlett, American businessman (d. 2001)
- May 26 - Peter Cushing, English actor (d. 1994)
- May 29 - Tony Zale, American boxer (d. 1997)
- June 10 - Tikhon Khrennikov, Russian composer
- June 11 - Vince Lombardi, American football coach (d. 1970)
- June 18 - Robert Mondavi, American wine maker
- June 25 - Cyril Fletcher, British comedian (d. 2005)
- June 28 - Franz Antel, Austrian filmmaker

July-October

- July 12 - Willis Lamb, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
- July 14 - Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States
- July 18 - Red Skelton, American comedian (d. 1997)
- July 22 - Gorni Kramer, Italian bandleader and songwriter (d. 1995)
- August 8 - John Facenda, American broadcaster and sports announcer (d. 1984)
- August 10 - Wolfgang Paul, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1993)
- August 16 - Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1992)
- August 17 - Rudy York, baseball player (d. 1970)
- August 19 - Richard Simmons, American actor (d. 2003)
- August 20 - Roger Wolcott Sperry, American neurobiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1994)
- August 28 - Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist (d. 1995)
- August 28 - Richard Tucker, American tenor (d. 1975)
- August 30 - Richard Stone, British economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
- September 4 - Stanford Moore, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1982)
- September 5 - Frank Thomas, American animator (d. 2004)
- September 12 - Jesse Owens, American athlete (d. 1980)
- September 14 - Jacobo Arbenz, President of Guatemala (d. 1971)
- September 15 - John N. Mitchell, United States Attorney General and convicted Watergate criminal (d. 1988)
- September 19 - Frances Farmer, American actress (d. 1970)
- September 29 - Trevor Howard, English actor (d. 1988)
- September 29 - Stanley Kramer, American film producer, director, and writer (d. 2001)
- September 29 - Silvio Piola, Italian footballer (d. 1996)
- September 30 - Bill Walsh, American movie producer and writer (d. 1975)
- October 10 - Claude Simon, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2005)

November-December

- November 2 - Burt Lancaster, American actor (d. 1994)
- November 5 - Vivien Leigh, British actress (d. 1967)
- November 7 - Albert Camus, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1960)
- November 9 - Hedy Lamarr, Austrian actress (d. 2000)
- November 10 - Álvaro Cunhal, Portuguese politician (d. 2005)
- November 13 - Alexander Scourby, American actor (d. 1985)
- November 15 - Arthur Haulot, Belgian journalist (d. 2005)
- November 21 - John Boulting, English film director (d.1985)
- November 21 - Roy Boulting, English film director and producer (d. 2001)
- November 22 - Benjamin Britten, English composer (d. 1976)
- December 6 - Eleanor Holm, American swimmer (d. 2004)
- December 10 - Morton Gould, American composer (d. 1996)
- December 18 - Alfred Bester, American author (d. 1987)
- December 18 - Willy Brandt, Chancellor of Germany, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1992)

Deaths

- January 1 - Alfred von Schlieffen, German field marshal (b. 1833)
- January 2 - Léon Teisserenc de Bort, French meteorologist (b. 1855)
- February 26 - Felix Draeseke, German composer (b. 1835)
- March 10 - Harriet Tubman, American anti-slavery activist (b. 1820)
- March 22 - Sung Chiao-jen, Chinese revolutionary (b. 1882)
- March 31 - J.P.Morgan, American financier and banker (b. 1837)
- June 5 - Chris von der Ahe, German-born brewer and baseball owner
- July 3 - Horatio Nelson Young, American naval hero (b. 1845)
- July 29 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser, Dutch jurist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1838)
- October 5 - Hans von Bartels, German painter (b. 1856)
- November 7 - Alfred Russel Wallace, Welsh biologist (b. 1823)
- December 12 - Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia (b. 1844)

Month/day unknown

- John S. Billings, M.D., American military and medical leader (b. 1838)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes
- Chemistry - Alfred Werner
- Medicine - Charles Robert Richet
- Literature - Rabindranath Tagore
- Peace - Henri La Fontaine Category:1913 ko:1913년 ms:1913 ja:1913年 simple:1913 th:พ.ศ. 2456

World War I

, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machine guns, and poison gas.]] World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War, the War of the Nations and the War to End All Wars, was a world conflict lasting from 1914 to 1919, with the fighting lasting until 1918. The label World War I or First World War did not come into general use until after the outbreak of World War II in 1939, and until then it was known as the Great War or the World War. The war was fought by the Allied Powers on one side, and the Central Powers on the other. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers or involved so many in the field of battle. By its end, the war had become the second bloodiest conflict in recorded history (behind the Taiping Rebellion), though it was surpassed within a generation by World War II. World War I became infamous for trench warfare; this was especially true of the Western Front. The trenches went from the North Sea to the border of Switzerland in Europe. More than 9 million died on the war's battlefields, and nearly that many more on the home fronts because of food shortages, genocide, and ground combat. Among other notable events, the first large-scale bombing from the air was undertaken and some of the century's first large-scale civilian massacres took place, as one of the aspects of modern efficient, non-chivalrous warfare. In the First World War 5% of casualties were civilian. In the Second World War that was 50%. World War I proved to be the decisive break with the old world order, marking the final demise of absolutist monarchy in Europe. Four empires were shattered: the German, the Austro-Hungarian, the Ottoman, and the Russian. Their four dynasties, the Hohenzollerns, the Habsburgs, the Ottomans, and the Romanovs, who had roots of power back to the days of the Crusades, all fell during or after the war. The post-war failure to deal effectively with many of the causes and results of the War would lead to the rise of Fascism in Italy, Nazism in Germany and the outbreak of World War II within a generation. The War was the catalyst for the Bolshevik Russian Revolution, which would inspire later Communist revolutions in countries as diverse as China and Cuba, and would lay the basis for the Cold War standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States. In the east, the demise of the Ottoman Empire paved the way for a modern democratic successor state, Turkey. In Central Europe, new states such as Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were born and Poland was re-created. __TOC__

Causes

Poland of Franz Ferdinand. The murder was the igniting torch of World War I.]] :See also: Causes of World War I and Participants in World War I On June 28, 1914, Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb student. He was part of a group of fifteen assassins, acting with support from the Black Hand, a secret society founded by pan-Serbian nationalists, with links to the Serbian military. The assassination sparked little initial concern in Europe. The Archduke himself was not popular, least of all in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. While there were riots in Sarajevo following the Archduke's death, these were largely aimed at the Serbian minority. Though this assassination has been linked as the direct trigger for World War I, the war's real origins lie further back, in the complex web of alliances and counterbalances that developed between the various European powers after the defeat of France and formation of the German state under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck in 1871.

Reasons & Responsibilities

- See also: Causes of World War I There are many different hypotheses that try to explain who, or what, is to blame for the outbreak of the First World War. Early explanations, prominent in the 1920s and 1930s, stressed the official version of responsibility as described in the Treaty of Versailles and Treaty of Trianon, that Germany and its allies were solely responsible for the war. However, as time progressed, scholars began looking toward the rigidity of both German and Russian military planning, each of which stressed the importance of striking first and executing plans quickly. The fact that for many decades the British had been accustomed to colonial wars which were won relatively easily against much weaker adversaries certainly helped build enthusiasm for the Great war. In addition, the fact that no major political force opposed the war meant that those who did not agree with it had little organisational power to build opposition, though small protests continued throughout the war. Another cause of the war was the building of alliances and arms races. An example of the latter is the launch of HMS Dreadnought, a revolutionary battleship that rendered all previous ships obsolete as "pre-dreadnoughts", in 1906. This weakened Britain's power as a seafaring nation and sparked a major naval arms race in shipbuilding, particularly between Britain and Germany due to new imperialism. Overall, nations in the Triple Entente became fearful of the Triple Alliance and vice versa. The civilian leaders of the European powers also found themselves facing a wave of nationalist zeal that had been building across Europe for years. This left governments with ever fewer options and little room to manoeuvre as the last weeks of July 1914 slipped away. Frantic diplomatic efforts to mediate the Austrian-Serbian quarrel simply became irrelevant, as the automatic military escalations between Germany and Russia reinforced one another. Furthermore, the problem of communications in 1914 should not be underestimated; all nations still used telegraphy and ambassadors as the main form of communication, resulting in delays from hours to even days. There is probably no single concise or conclusive assessment of the exact cause of the First World War.

Outbreak of war

ambassadors are depicted in green, the Central Powers in red, and neutral countries in yellow.]] Austria–Hungary was created in the "Ausgleich of 1867" after Austria was defeated by Prussia. As agreed in 1867, the Habsburgs were the Emperors of the Austrian Empire. With the formation of the Dual Monarchy, Franz Josef became leader of a nation with sixteen ethnic groups and five major religions speaking no fewer than nine languages. In large measure because of the vast disparities that existed within the Empire, Austrians and Hungarians always viewed growing Slavic nationalism with deep suspicion and concern. Thus the Austro-Hungarian government grew worried with the near-doubling in size of neighbouring Serbia's territory as a result of the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913. Serbia, for its part, made no qualms about the fact that it viewed all of Southern Austria–Hungary as part of a future Great South Slavic Union. This view had also garnered considerable support in Russia. Many in the Austrian leadership, not least Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph, and Conrad von Hötzendorf, worried that Serbian nationalist agitation in the southern provinces of the Empire would lead to further unrest among the Austro-Hungarian Empire's other disparate ethnic groups. The Austro-Hungarian government worried that a nationalist Russia would back Serbia to annex Slavic areas of Austria–Hungary. The feeling was that it was better to destroy Serbia before they were given the opportunity to launch a campaign. After the assassination of Franz Ferdinand by Gavrilo Princip and nearly a month of debate the government of Austria–Hungary sent a 10-point ultimatum to Serbia (July 23, 1914) — the so called July Ultimatum — to be unconditionally accepted within 48 hours. The ultimatum was the first of a series of diplomatic events known as the July Crisis which set off a chain reaction and a general war in Europe. The Serbian government agreed to all but one of the demands in the ultimatum, noting that participation in its judicial proceedings by a foreign power would violate its constitution. Austria–Hungary nonetheless broke off diplomatic relations (July 25) and declared war (July 28) through a telegram sent to the Serbian government. The Russian government, which had pledged in 1909 to uphold Serbian independence in return for Serbia's acceptance of the Bosnia annexation, mobilised its military reserves on 30 July following a breakdown in crucial telegram communications between Kaiser Wilhelm and Tsar Nicholas II (the famous "Willy and Nicky" correspondence), who was under pressure by his military staff to prepare for war. Germany demanded (31 July) that Russia stand down its forces, but the Russian government persisted, as demobilization would have made it impossible to re-activate its military schedule in the short term. Germany declared war against Russia on August 1 and, two days later, against the latter's ally France. The outbreak of the conflict is often attributed to the alliances established over the previous decades — Germany-Austria-Italy vs France-Russia; Britain and Serbia being aligned with the latter. In fact, none of the alliances were activated in the initial outbreak, though Russian general mobilization and Germany's declaration of war against France were motivated by fear of the opposing alliance being brought into play. Britain declared war against Germany on August 4. This was ostensibly provoked by Germany's invasion of Belgium on August 4 1914, whose independence Britain had guaranteed to uphold in the Treaty of London of 1839, and which stood astride the planned German route for invasion of Russia's ally France. Unofficially, it was already generally accepted in government that Britain could not remain neutral, since without the co-operation of France and Russia its colonies in Africa and India would be under threat, while German occupation of the French Atlantic ports would be an even larger threat to British trade as a whole.

The spread of war

;1914
- July 23: Austria-Hungary ultimatum to Serbia.
- July 28: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
- July 31: Russia begins mobilization.
- August 1: Germany declares war on Russia.
- August 2: German troops occupy Luxembourg.
- August 3: Germany declares war on France.
- August 4: Germany invades neutral Belgium; the United Kingdom declares war on Germany in response.
- August 6: Montenegro sides with its traditional ally, Serbia, and declares war on Austria-Hungary.
- August 10: Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia.
- August 12: The United Kingdom and France declare war on Austria-Hungary.
- August 23: Japan declares war on Germany.
- September: Unity Pact signed by France, Britain, and Russia.
- October 9: Belgium falls to German troops at the Siege of Antwerp.
- October 29: The Ottoman Empire enters the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
- November 2: Russia declares war on the Ottoman sultanate.
- November 5: France and United Kingdom declare war on the Ottoman sultanate.
- December 25: Christmas Truce in the Trenches. ;1915
- April 25: Gallipoli campaign commences. Turks defeat Allies crushingly.
- April 26: Italy secretly signs the London Pact with the Triple Entente.
- May 23: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
- October 14: Bulgaria declares war on Serbia and enters the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary. ;1916
- March 9: Germany declares war on Portugal (see Portugal in the Great War).
- August 27: Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary.
- August 28: Italy declares war on Germany. ;1917
- January 16: Germany sends the Zimmermann Telegram to Mexico, proposing an alliance against the United States.
- April 6: The United States declares war on Germany.
- June 27: Greece enters the war on the side of the Entente.
- July 6: Arab Revolt troops under Lawrence Of Arabia capture Aqaba, a main sea port for the Ottoman Empire.
- August 14: The Republic of China declares war on Germany.
- October 26: Brazil declares war on Germany.
- November 7: The October Revolution takes place in Russia.
- December 7: United States declares war on Austria-Hungary. ;1918
- January 8: President Woodrow Wilson made his famous Fourteen Points address, introducing the idea of a League of Nations.
- 3 March: Russia and the Central Powers sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, marking Russia's exit from World War I.
- October 30: Mudros/Turkish Armistice signed opening Turkish territory to Entente military operations.
- November 11: Armistice signed, end of World War I. ;1919
- 28 June: Treaty of Versailles, official end to World War I between the Entente and Germany. ;1920
- 4 June: Treaty of Trianon, partition of Austro-Hungarian Empire's Kingdom of Hungary. ;1923
- 24 July: Treaty of Lausanne, peace made with Turkey.
- 29 October: Turkey changes its government to republic.

Opening battles

republic Some of the very first actions of the war occurred far from Europe, in Africa and in the Pacific Ocean. On August 8 1914 a combined French and British Empire force invaded the German protectorate of Togoland. On August 10 German forces based in South-West Africa attacked South Africa. New Zealand occupied German Samoa (30 August 1914) and on September 11 the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force landed on the island of Neu Pommern, which formed part of German New Guinea. Within a few months the Entente forces had accepted the surrender of or driven out German forces in the Pacific. Sporadic and fierce fighting continued in Africa for the remainder of the war. In Europe, Germany and Austria-Hungary suffered from miscommunication regarding each army's intentions. Germany had originally guaranteed to support Austria-Hungary's invasion of Serbia, but the interpretations of this idea differed. Austro-Hungarian leaders thought Germany would cover her northern flank against Russia, but Germany had planned for Austria-Hungary to focus the majority of its troops on Russia while Germany dealt with France on the Western Front. This confusion forced the Austro-Hungarian army to split its troop concentrations from the south in order to meet the Russians in the north. The Serb army, coming up from the south of the country, met the Austrian army at the Battle of Cer on 12 August 1914. The Serbians occupied defensive positions against the Austrians. The first attack came on August 16th, between parts of the 21st Austro–Hungarian division and parts of the Serbian Combined division. In harsh night-time fighting the battle ebbed and flowed, until Stepa Stepanovic rallied the Serbian line. Three days later the Austrians retreated across the Danube, having suffered 21,000 casualties as against 16,000 Serbian. This marked the first major Allied victory of the war. The Austrians had not achieved their main goal of eliminating Serbia, and it became increasingly likely that Germany would have to maintain forces on two fronts. Germany's plan (named the Schlieffen plan) to deal with the Franco-Russian alliance involved delivering a knock-out blow to the French and then turning to deal with the more slowly mobilized Russian army. Rather than invading eastern France directly, German planners deemed it prudent to attack France from the north. To do so, the German army had to march through Belgium. Germany demanded free passage from the Belgian government, promising to treat Belgium as Germany's firm ally if the Belgians agreed. When Belgium refused, Germany invaded and began marching through Belgium anyway, after first invading and securing Luxembourg. It soon encountered resistance before the forts of the Belgian city of Liège, although the army as a whole continued to make rapid progress into France. Britain sent an army to France (the British Expeditionary Force, or BEF), which advanced into Belgium. Initially the Germans had great successes in the Battle of the Frontiers (14–24 August 1914). However, the delays brought about by the resistance of the Belgian, French and British forces; the unexpectedly rapid mobilization of the Russians; and the overly-ambitious objectives upset the German plans. Russia attacked in East Prussia, diverting German forces intended for the Western Front. Germany defeated Russia in a series of battles collectively known as the Second Battle of Tannenberg (17 August – 2 September). This diversion exacerbated problems of insufficient speed of advance from railheads, not allowed for by the German General Staff, and allowed French and British forces to finally halt the German advance on Paris at the First Battle of the Marne (September 1914) as the Entente forced the Central Powers into fighting a war on two fronts. The German army had fought its way into a good defensive position inside France and had permanently incapacitated 230,000 more French and British troops than it had lost itself in the months of August and September. Yet staff incompetence and leadership timidity, as Ludendorff had needlessly transferred troops from the right to protect Sedan, cost Germany the chance for an early knockout.

Early stages: from romanticism to the trenches

Sedan, 1917]] The perception of war in 1914 was romanticized by many people, and its declaration was met with great enthusiasm by these people. The common view was that it would be a short war of manoeuvre with a few sharp actions (to "teach the enemy a lesson") and would end with a victorious entry into the enemy capital, then home for a victory parade or two and back to "normal" life. However, many people regarded the coming war with great pessimism and worry. Many military figures, such as Lord Kitchener and Erich Ludendorff, predicted the war would be a long one. Other political leaders, such as Bethmann Hollweg in Germany, were concerned by the potential social consequences of a war. International bond and financial markets entered severe crises in late July and early August reflecting worry about the financial consequences of war. The perceived excitement of war captured the imagination of many in the warring nations. Spurred on by propaganda and nationalist fervor, many eagerly joined the ranks in search of adventure. Few were prepared for what they actually encountered at the front. See also: Recruitment to the British Army during WW I

Trench warfare begins

:Main article: Western Front (World War I) Advances in military technology meant that defensive firepower out-weighed offensive capabilities, making the war particularly murderous, as tactics had failed to keep up. Barbed wire was a significant hindrance to massed infantry advances; artillery, now vastly more lethal than in the 1870s, coupled with machineguns, made crossing open ground a nightmarish prospect. General Staffs of European armies had uniformly ignored the lessons of the U.S. Civil War and were often indifferent to massive loss of life (General Haig's diaries are particularly striking in this respect). After their initial success on the Marne, Entente and German forces began a series of outflanking manoeuvres to try to force the other to retreat, in the so-called Race to the Sea. Britain and France soon found themselves facing entrenched German positions from Lorraine to Belgium's Flemish coast. Britain and France sought to take the offensive while Germany defended occupied territories. One consequence was that German trenches were much better constructed than those of their enemy: Anglo-French trenches were only intended to be 'temporary' before their forces broke through German defences. Some hoped to break the stalemate by utilizing science and technology. In April 1915, the Germans used mustard gas for the first time, opening a four mile wide hole in the Allied lines when French colonial troops retreated before it. This breach was closed by Canadian soldiers at Ypres, earning German respect. Neither side proved able to deliver a decisive blow for the next four years, though protracted German action at Verdun throughout 1916, and the Entente's failure at the Somme in the summer of 1916 brought the French army to the brink of collapse. Futile attempts at more frontal assaults, at terrible cost to the French poilu (infantry), led to mutinies which threatened the integrity of the front line after the Nivelle Offensive in spring of 1917. News of the Russian Revolution gave a new incentive to socialist sentiments. Red flags were hoisted and the Internationale was sung on several occasions. At the height of the mutiny, 30,000 to 40,000 French soldiers participated. Throughout 1915-17 the British Empire and France suffered many more casualties than Germany, but both sides lost millions of soldiers to injury and disease. Around 800,000 soldiers from the British Empire were on the Western Front at any one time, 1,000 battalions each occupying a sector of the line from Belgium to the Arne and operating a month-long four stage system, unless an offensive was underway. The front contained over 6,000 miles of trenches. Each battalion held its sector for around a week before moving back to support lines and then the reserve lines before a week out-of-line, often in the Poperinge or Amiens areas.

Southern theatres

Entry of the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in October–November 1914, due to the secret Turko-German Alliance signed on August 2, 1914, threatening Russia's Caucasian territories and Britain's communications with India and the East via the Suez canal. British Empire action opened another front in the South with the Gallipoli (1915) and Mesopotamian campaigns, though initially the Turks were successful in repelling enemy incursion. In Mesopotamia, by contrast, after the disastrous Siege of Kut (1915–16), British Empire forces reorganized and captured Baghdad in March 1917. Further to the west in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, initial British failures were overcome with Jerusalem being captured in December 1917 and the Egyptian Expeditionary Force under Edmund Allenby going on to break the Ottoman forces at the Battle of Megiddo (September 1918). Russian armies generally had the best of it in the Caucasus. Enver Pasha, supreme commander of the Turkish armed forces, was a very ambitious man, with a dream to conquer central Asia. He was not a practical soldier. He launched an offensive with 100,000 troops against the Russians in the Caucasus in December of 1914. Insisting on a frontal attack against Russian positions in the mountains in the heart of winter, Enver lost 86% of his force. A new Russian commander on the front in the fall of 1915, Grand Duke Nicholas, brought new vigour. A major offensive in 1916 drove the Turks out of much of present-day Armenia, and tragically provided a context for the deportation and genocide against the Armenian population in eastern Armenia. With control of part of the southern Black Sea coast, Nicholas pushed forward the construction of railway lines to bring up supplies. He was ready for an offensive in the spring of 1917. If it had gone ahead, there was a very good chance that Turkey would have been knocked out of the war in the summer of 1917. But, because of the Russian Revolution, Grand Duke Nicholas was recalled and the Russian armies soon fell apart.

Italian participation

:Main article: Italian Campaign (WWI) Italy had been allied to the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires since 1882, but had its own designs against Austrian territory in the Trentino, Istria and Dalmatia, and a secret 1902 understanding with France effectively nullifying its alliance commitments. Italy refused to join Germany and Austria-Hungary at the beginning of the war, because the alliance was defensive, while Austria declared war on Serbia. The Austrian government started negotiations to obtain Italian neutrality in exchange for French territories (Tunisia), but Italy joined the Entente by signing the London Pact in April and declaring war on Austria-Hungary in May 1915; it declared war against Germany fifteen months later. In general, the Italians enjoyed numerical superiority, but were poorly equipped; instead, the Austro-Hungarian defence took advantage of the elevation of their bases in the mostly mountainous terrain, which was anything but suitable for military offensives. For the most part the front remained unchanged during the war, while Austrian Kaiserschützen and Standschützen and Italian Alpini fought bitter close combat battles during summer and tried to survive during winter in the high mountains. Beginning in 1915, the Italians mounted 17 major offensives on the Isonzo front (the part of the border nearest Trieste), all repelled by the Austro-Hungarians, who had the higher ground. The Austro-Hungarians counter-attacked from the Altopiano of Asiago towards Verona and Padua in the spring of 1916 (Strafexpedition), but they also made little progress. In the summer, the Italians took back the initiative, capturing the town of Gorizia. After this minor victory, the front remained practically stable for over one year, despite several Italian offensives, again all on the Isonzo front. In the fall of 1917, thanks to the improving situation on the Eastern front, the Austrians received large reinforcements, including German assault troops. On October 26, they launched a crushing offensive that resulted in the victory of Caporetto: the Italian army was routed, but after retreating more than 100km, it was able to reorganize and hold at the Battle of the Piave River. In 1918 the Austrians repeatedly failed to break the Italian line, and, decisively defeated in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, surrendered to the Entente powers in November. Throughout the war Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff, Conrad von Hötzendorf had a deep hatred for the Italians because he had always perceived them to be the greatest threat to his state. Their betrayal in 1915 enraged him even further. His hatred for Italy blinded him in many ways, and he made many foolish tactical and strategic errors during the campaigns in Italy.

The War in the Balkans

After repelling three Austrian invasions in August-December 1914, Serbia fell to combined German, Austrian and Bulgarian invasion in October 1915. The Serbian army retreated into Albania and Greece. In late 1915, a Franco-British force landed at Salonica in Greece to offer assistance and to pressure the Greek government into war against the Central Powers. Unfortunately for the Allies, the pro-allied government of Eleftherios Venizelos fell before the allied expeditionary force even arrived, and the pro-German king, Constantine, prevented official Greek entry into the war for two years, until 1917. Meanwhile, the Salonica Front proved entirely immobile, so that it was joked that Salonica was the largest German prisoner of war camp. Only at the very end of the war, after most of the German and Austro-Hungarian troops had been removed and the front had to be held by the Bulgarians alone, were the Entente powers able to make a breakthrough, leading to Bulgaria's signing an armistice on September 29, 1918.

The Eastern Front

1918 :Main article: Eastern Front (World War I) While the Western Front had reached stalemate in the trenches, the war continued in the east. The Russian initial plans for war had called for simultaneous invasions of Austrian Galicia and German East Prussia. Although Russia's initial advance into Galicia was largely successful, they were driven back from East Prussia by the victories of the German generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes in August and September 1914. Russia's less-developed economic and military organization soon proved unequal to the combined might of the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires. In the spring of 1915 the Russians were driven back in Galicia, and in May the Central Powers achieved a remarkable breakthrough on Poland's southern fringes, capturing Warsaw on August 5 and forcing the Russians to withdraw from all of Poland, known as the "Great Retreat".

The Russian Revolution

Dissatisfaction with the Russian government's conduct of the war grew despite the success of the June 1916 Brusilov offensive in eastern Galicia against the Austrians, when Russian success was undermined by the reluctance of other generals to commit their forces in support of the victorious sector commander. Allied fortunes revived only temporarily with Romania's entry into the war on August 27: German forces came to the aid of embattled Austrian units in Transylvania, and Bucharest fell to the Central Powers on December 6. Meanwhile, internal unrest grew in Russia, as the Tsar remained out of touch at the front, while Empress Alexandra's increasingly incompetent rule drew protests from all segments of Russian political life, resulting in the murder of Alexandra's favourite Rasputin by conservative noblemen at the end of 1916. conservative] In March 1917, demonstrations in St. Petersburg culminated in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the appointment of a weak centrist Provisional Government, which shared power with the socialists of the Petrograd Soviet. This division of power led to confusion and chaos, both on the front and at home, and the army became progressively less able to effectively resist Germany. Meanwhile, the war, and the government, became more and more unpopular, and the discontent led to a rise in popularity of the Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin, who were then able to gain power. The triumph of the Bolsheviks in November was followed in December by an armistice and negotiations with Germany. At first, the Bolsheviks refused to agree to the harsh German terms, but when Germany resumed the war and marched with impunity across Ukraine, the new government acceded to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3, 1918, which took Russia out of the war and ceded vast territories including Finland, the Baltic provinces, Poland and Ukraine to the Central Powers. After the Russians initially dropped out of the war, Entente led a small-scale invasion of Russia. The invasion was made with intent to punish the Russians for dropping out of World War I and to support the Tsarists in the Russian Revolution. Troops landed in Archangel and in Vladivostok. The Entente forces were initially told they were invading to defend supplies from German troops. In reality, they were defending them from communist Russians. A memorial commemorating the event is located in White Chapel Cemetery in Troy, Michigan. The force also included a number of Canadians who were based in Vladivostok. The Canadian force contained an artillery unit, but they saw minimal combat.

The Last Half

Troy, Michigan Events of 1917 would prove decisive in ending the war, although their effects would not fully be felt until 1918. The Entente's naval blockade of Germany began to have serious impact on morale and productivity on the German home-front. In response, in February 1917, the German General Staff (OHL) were able to convince Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg to declare unrestricted submarine warfare, with the goal of starving Britain out of the war. Tonnage sunk rose above 500,000 tons per month from February until July, peaking at 860,000 tonnes in April. After July, the newly introduced convoy system was extremely effective in neutralizing the U-boat threat. Britain was safe from the threat of starvation. The decisive victory of Germany at the Battle of Caporetto led to the Entente decision at the Rapallo Conference to form the Supreme Allied Council at Versailles to co-ordinate plans and action. Previously British Empire and French armies had operated under separate command systems. In December, the Central Powers signed an Armistice with Russia, thereby releasing troops from the eastern front for use in the west. Ironically, German troop transfers could have been greater if their territorial acquisitions had not been so dramatic. With both German reinforcements and new American troops pouring into the Western Front, the final outcome of the war was to be decided in that front. The Central Powers knew that they could not win a protracted war now that American forces were certain to be arriving in increasing numbers, but held high hopes for a rapid offensive in the West, using their reinforced troops and new infantry tactics. Furthermore, rulers of both the Central Powers and the Entente became more fearful of the threat first raised by Ivan Bloch in 1899, that protracted industrialized war threatened social collapse and revolution throughout Europe. Both sides urgently sought a decisive, rapid victory on the Western Front as they were both fearful of collapse or stalemate.

Entry of the United States

revolution A long stretch of American isolationism (the Monroe Doctrine) left the United States reluctant to involve itself with what was popularly conceived as a European dispute. Early in 1917 Germany resumed its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare. This, combined with public indignation over the Zimmermann telegram, led to a final break of relations with the Central Powers. President Woodrow Wilson requested that the U.S. Congress declare war on Germany, which it did on April 6, 1917 (see: Woodrow Wilson declares war on Germany on Wikisource). The Senate approved the war resolution 82-6, the House with 373-50. Wilson hoped a separate peace could be achieved with Austria-Hungary; however, when it kept its loyalty to Germany, the US declared war on Austria-Hungary in December 1917. Although the American contribution to the war was important, particularly in terms of the threat posed by increased US presence in Europe, the United States was never formally a member of the Entente, but an "Associated Power". Significant numbers of American troops only arrived in Europe in the summer of 1918. Still, the United States had been in a state of full miltitary-related production, aiding the Entente for quite some time. This was another reason for the decision to resume unrestricted submarine warfare, as America's declaration of war would only change circumstances once troops began to arrive in Europe in the distant future. However, the United States Army and the National Guard had mobilized in 1916 to pursue the Mexican "bandit" Pancho Villa, aiding the speed of wartime mobilization after April, 6, 1917. The German High Command saw the episode as reconfirming evidence of American military incompetence. The United States Navy was able to send a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join with the British Grand Fleet, a number of destroyers to Queenstown, Ireland and several divisions of submarines to the Azores and Bantry Bay, Ireland to help guard convoys. However, it would be some time before the United States forces would be able to contribute significant manpower to the Western and Italian fronts. The British and French insisted that the United States emphasize sending infantry to reinforce the line. Throughout the war, the American forces were short of their own artillery, aviation, and engineering units. However, General John J. Pershing, American Expeditionary Force commander, resisted breaking up American units and using them as reinforcements for British Empire and French units, as suggested by the Allies. Pershing also maintained the use of frontal assaults, which had been discarded by that time by British Empire and French commanders. As a result the American Expeditionary Force suffered a very high rate of casualties in its operations in the summer and fall of 1918.

German Spring Offensive of 1918

American Expeditionary Force] Ludendorff made plans for a 1918 general offensive along the Western Front, codenamed Operation Michael. The Spring Offensive sought to divide the British Empire and French armies in a series of feints and advances. The German leadership hoped to strike a decisive blow before the United States forces could be deployed. Before the offensives even began, Ludendorff may have made the mistake of leaving the elite Eighth Army in Russia and sending over only a small portion of the forces from the east to aid the offensive in the west. Operation Michael opened on 21 March, 1918 with an attack against British Empire forces, towards the rail junction at Amiens. It was Ludendorff's intention to split the British Empire and French armies at this point. German forces achieved an unprecedented advance of 60 km. For the first time since 1914, manoeuvre had returned to the battlefield. British and French trenches were defeated using novel infiltration tactics. To this time, attacks had been characterized by long artillery bombardments and continuous-front mass assaults. However, in the Spring Offensive the German Army used artillery briefly and infiltrated small groups of infantry at weak points, attacking command and logistics areas and surrounding points of serious resistance. These isolated positions were then destroyed by more heavily armed infantry. German success relied greatly on this tactic. The front line had now moved to within 120 kilometres of Paris. Three super-heavy Krupp railway guns advanced to fire 183 shells on Paris, causing many Parisians to flee the city. The initial stages of the offensive were so successful that United Kingdom collectively, but also as separate entities, distinct from the United Kingdom as a whole. These were originally the nations of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, but with the partition of Ireland in 1922 and independance of most of the island, the latter place has now been taken by Northern Ireland in most, but not all circumstances. Usage of the term is rarer now (especially outside the UK) and somewhat controversial in some quarters (particularly if describing Northern Ireland as a 'nation'). It is still very common in some sporting contexts (e.g. Rugby). Sometimes the term is used to include all the self-governing nations or states of the British Isles (thus including the Republic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Bailiwicks of Guernsey and Jersey), although this usage is incorrect. There is some debate, both popular and academic, as to whether Cornwall (which is normally considered part of England) should be considered a constituent part of the UK and therefore a Home Nation[http://www.institutes.ex.ac.uk/ics/bernard%20Celtic%20frontier%20or%20county%20boundary.pdf], with the Cornish nationalist movement often supporting this view. The term is often used when referring to sporting events in which each Home Nation competes separately, such as the now defunct British Home Championship in football. In sports such as Rugby Union where an Irish team represents both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, it is common in Britain, for the team to be referred to as a Home Nation team. For example within the Rugby Union Six Nations Championship the Home Nation teams play for the honour of winning the Triple Crown.

Similar terms

The term parallels that of the Home Counties, which surround London. The Japanese also used to refer to their main archipelago as the Home Islands when they had a substantial empire.

Football World Cup

The Football World Cup (official name: FIFA World Cup) is the most important competition in international football (soccer). Organised by Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's governing body, the World Cup finals tournament is the most widely-viewed and followed sporting event in the world exceeding even the Olympic Games. The finals are held every four years, but the World Cup competition itself takes place over a three-year period. Teams representing 197 (for the 2006 competition) national football associations compete in regional qualifying tournaments for a place in the finals. The finals tournament now involves 32 national teams (increased in 1998 from the previous 24) competing over a 4-week period in a previously nominated host nation. A recent innovation has allowed more than one country to act as joint hosts. In the past, the host country and current world champions automatically qualified for the next World Cup, but from 2006 on only the hosts will get an automatic berth. In all 207 teams have competed to qualify to the World Cup, but only eleven have made it to the final match, and of those eleven only seven teams have actually won. As a consequence of this exclusiveness, the World Cup inspires a great deal of enthusiasm and national pride amongst the tournament's fans. Six of the seven teams that have won a world championship did it at least once while playing in their own homeland, and nations actively lobby to be selected as World Cup hosts. The only previous winner not to have won on home ground is the otherwise extremely successful Brazil, who famously lost the deciding match when they hosted the 1950 tournament. Even traditionally "weaker" nations have been successful during their spell as hosts, most recently South Korea, who made it to the semifinals while hosting the 2002 World Cup. Both England () and France () won their only World Cups whilst playing as host nations. The next football World Cup will be held in Germany in 2006.

History

The World Cup was not the first international football competition. Amateur football became a part of the official Olympic programme for the first time in 1908 (See: Football at the 1908 Summer Olympics). In Turin in 1909, in what is sometimes described as The First World Cup, Sir Thomas Lipton organised a football tournament to contest the Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy. Italy, Germany and Switzerland sent their most prestigious professional club sides to the competition but The Football Association of England refused to be associated with it and declined the offer to send a team. Not wishing to have Britain unrepresented in the competition, Lipton invited West Auckland FC, an amateur side from the north-east of England and mostly made up of coal miners, to take part. West Auckland won the tournament and returned to Italy in 1911 to defend their title. In the second competition West Auckland beat Juventus 6-1 in the final and were awarded the trophy outright. In the Olympic games of 1924 and 1928, Uruguay won the football gold medal, in what was considered a proto-world cup. Unofficially, FIFA recognized Uruguay as World Champion. These victories led the FIFA to choose Uruguay as the home of the first FIFA sanctioned World Cup. In 1927, the 1932 Summer Olympics were awarded to Los Angeles in the United States where the popularity of American football far surpassed that of the international game of association football (by then becoming known as soccer in the US). The general lack of interest from the Americans and a disagreement between FIFA and the IOC over the status of amateur players led to football being dropped from the official Olympic programme for the 1932 games. As a consequence, Jules Rimet, who had become president of FIFA in 1921, set about organising the inaugural World Cup tournament, to take place in Uruguay in 1930. The national associations of selected nations were invited to send a team but the choice of Uruguay as a venue for the competition meant a long and costly trip across the Atlantic for European sides and up until two months before the start of the competition no team from that continent had promised to send a team. Rimet eventually persuaded teams representing Belgium, France, Romania, and Yugoslavia to make the trip. In total, thirteen nations took part - seven from South America, four from Europe and two from North America. The first ever goal was scored by Lucien Laurent who scored for France against Mexico (match ended 4-1 for France). Uruguay beat Argentina 4-2 in front of crowd of 93,000 in Montevideo to become the first nation to win the the World Cup trophy. In 1946 the World Cup trophy was renamed the Jules Rimet trophy in his honour. In 1970, Brazil's third victory in the tournament entitled them to keep the original trophy and a new trophy was then designed. Argentina, Germany (both times as West Germany) and Brazil have all won the second trophy twice, but the current trophy will not be retired until the name plaque has been entirely filled with the names of winning nations (this will not happen until 2038). Brazil, by a clear margin, is the most successful World Cup team overall, having won the tournament five times in total and finished as runners-up twice. Brazil is also the only nation to have participated in every World Cup so far. Germany, three-time winners (as West Germany) and four-time runners-up (three times as West Germany), are next, while Italy have also won three trophies and two-time runners-up. Argentina and Uruguay are both two-time World Champions. England () and France () have both won the title once. The two countries with the most appearances in the World Cup final match are Germany and Brazil each with 7 appearances in the final match (Brazil won 5 while Germany won 3). To date, the final of the World Cup has only been contested by European and/or South American teams. The greatest success of a North American team was reaching the semi-finals, achieved by the USA at the . The first Asian teams to make it to the semi-finals was at the , when South Korea and Turkey both did this (Turkey is however a member of the UEFA, and thus sometimes considered a European country when it comes to football). Two African teams have reached the quarter-finals: Cameroon at the and Senegal in 2002. The only visits of teams from Oceania in the tournament ended in the first round: Australia at the and New Zealand in the but Australia has now qualified for the 2006 Cup after winning through a play-off with the 5th placed South American side, Uruguay, in November 2005. The next World Cup finals will be held in Germany, in 2006. As indicated below, the 2010 World Cup will be held in South Africa. The 2014 World Cup, which FIFA has earmarked for South America, is expected to be held in Brazil as CONMEBOL, the South American Football Confederation, has already backed it as their choice. For the 2018 finals, Netherlands and Belgium have expressed interest in holding the finals jointly, and England have also expressed a possibility of bidding for the prestigious event.

Début of National Teams

Each successive World Cup has welcomed at least one team qualifying for the first time as detailed below. Brazil holds the honour of being present at each of the World Cups, and in 2005 became the first ever reigning champions to go through qualifying for the World Cup.
- 1930 - ⁽¹⁾
- 1934 - ⁽²⁾ ⁽⁴⁾
- 1938 -
- 1950 -
- 1954 - ⁽⁴⁾
- 1958 - ⁽³⁾
- 1962 -
- 1966 -
- 1970 -
- 1974 - ⁽⁴⁾
- 1978 -
- 1982 -
- 1986 -
- 1990 -
- 1994 - ⁽⁴⁾ ⁽³⁾
- 1998 - ⁽¹⁾ ⁽¹⁾
- 2002 - ⁽¹⁾
- 2006 - ⁽²⁾ ⁽³⁾

¹ After Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia FYR and Slovenia seceded from Yugoslavia in 1992, Serbia and Montenegro formed the FR Yugoslavia. They competed as Yugoslavia until 2003 when they became Serbia and Montenegro and qualified for the 2006 finals under the new name, while Croatia and Slovenia had previously done the same for the .

² Czechoslovakia was divided into successor states Slovakia and the Czech Republic in 1991. The true debut of both teams was in 1934; however, after the Velvet Divorce they are now considered separate political entities and as such are entitled to a second debut.

³ Russia and Ukraine had qualified originally in the 1958 World Cup united with the other Soviet Republics as the USSR. However after the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 each team is considered to be qualifying for the first time.

⁴ The first appereance of Germany was in 1934. After 1945, Germany was divided into East Germany and West Germany. The 1994 World Cup was the first time a Unified Germany competed in the World Cup since before World War II. Officially, FIFA attributes the three World Cup victories of West Germany to Germany (body Deutscher Fußball Bund).

Teams' Participations

¹Includes one appearance as Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in 1998.

²Now Democratic Republic of the Congo.

³Now Indonesia.

Football World Cup tournaments

Note: FIFA has not yet specified which continent will host the World Cup in 2018 and 2022.

¹ There was no official World Cup Third Place match in 1930; USA and Yugoslavia lost in the semi-finals.'

² There was no official World Cup final match in 1950. The tournament was decided in a final group contested by four teams. However, Uruguay's 2-1 defeat of Brazil was the decisive match which put them ahead on points and ensured that they finished top of the group as world champions.
Final group standings: 1st: Uruguay; 2nd: Brazil; 3rd: Sweden; 4th: Spain.

World Cup winners ranking

South America holds the most titles at nine, followed by Europe at eight. # Brazil - 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002 (5 titles) # Germany - 1954, 1974, 1990 (3 titles as West Germany)
Italy - 1934, 1938, 1982 (3 titles) # Argentina - 1978, 1986 (2 titles)
Uruguay - 1930, 1950 (2 titles) # England - 1966 (1 title)
France - 1998 (1 title)
- You can have access to a [http://worldcuphistory.free.fr/trophyroom.htm full view of World Cup teams ranking] according to their performance during the 17 World Cups.

World Cup Awards

At the end of each World Cup final tournament, several awards are attributed to the players and teams which have distinguished from the rest, in different aspects of the game. There are currently six awards:
- the Golden Boot for top goal scorer;
- the Golden Ball for best player;
- the Yashin Award for best goalkeeper;
- the FIFA Fair Play Award for the team with the best record of fair play;
- the Most Entertaining Team award.
- the Gillete Best Young Player award.

Golden Boot - Top Goalscorers

The Golden Boot (or Golden Shoe) is awarded to the top goalscorer of the World Cup final tournament. The award was introduced at the 1982 World Cup for the first time.

Adidas Golden Ball

The Golden Ball is an award attributed to the most outstanding player of the World Cup final tournament. FIFA announces a shortlist of ten nominees which is then voted by media representatives. The most voted player is elected to win the Golden Ball, the second most voted player wins the Silver Ball and the third most voted player wins the Bronze Ball. Its awarding is shrouded by allegations of being influenced by diplomacy: the three awards have always been won by players from three different nations.

Yashin Award

The Yashin Award is attributed to the best goalkeeper of the World Cup final tournament. The award is named in honour of the late and legendary Russian goalkeeper, Lev Yashin.

FIFA Fair Play Award

The FIFA Fair Play Award is given to the team with the best record of fair play during the World Cup final tournament. Only teams that qualified for the second round are considered.

Most Entertaining Team

The Most Entertaining Team award is attributed to the team that has entertained the public the most, during the World Cup final tournament. It is always decided through public participation in a poll.

Gillete Best Young Player Award

The Gillete Best Young Player award is attributed to the best player in the tournament under 21 years of age at the start of the calendar year for each World Cup. For the this means that the player has to have born on or after 01 January 1985. It will be awarded for the first time at the in Germany. The election will take place on the FIFA's official world cup site.

Overall Top Goalscorers

14 Goals
- Gerd Müller 13 Goals
- Just Fontaine 12 Goals
- Pelé
- Ronaldo 11 Goals
- Jürgen Klinsmann
- Sándor Kocsis 10 Goals
- Gabriel Batistuta
- Teófilo Cubillas
- Gary Lineker
- Grzegorz Lato
- Helmut Rahn 9 Goals
- Ademir ⁽⁴⁾
- Roberto Baggio
- Eusébio
- Jairzinho
- Paolo Rossi
- Karl-Heinz Rummenigge
- Uwe Seeler
- Vavá
- Christian Vieri 8 Goals
- Leônidas
- Diego Maradona
- Omar Oscar Míguez
- Guillermo Stábile
- Rivaldo
- Rudi Völler
-

⁴ There was controversy regarding how many goals Brazilian Ademir Menezes scored in 1950, because of incomplete data concerning the Final Round game Brazil vs. Spain (6:1). The first goal had been credited as an own goal by Spanish defender Parra, and the 5:0 goal had been credited to Jair. However, recently FIFA credited Ademir with both these goals; thus he's the 1950 World Cup top scorer with 9 goals.

Fastest Goals

External links

- [http://www.fifa.com/en/index.html FIFA organization official site]
- [http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/ FIFA World Cup Germany 2006 Official Site]
- [http://www.fifa.com/infoplus/IP-201_02E_WC-origin.pdf FIFA Official Ranking of all Participants at Finals 1930-2002 (PDF)]
- [http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/p/pwc/index.html FIFA Match Results for all Stages 1930-2002]
- [http://www.world-cup-schedule.com Official World Cup Schedule Information]
- [http://www.worldcup-history.com WorldCup-History.com]
- [http://www.planetworldcup.com Planet World Cup with information on each men's World Cup finals]
- [http://www.2006-world-cup-draw.com Official World Cup Draw Information]
- [http://www.worldcuplatest.com 2006 World Cup news and statistics information]
- [http://odds.bestbetting.co.uk/football/world-cup/winner Bookmakers odds on 2006 World Cup]
- [http://www.world-cup-countries.com Official World Cup Qualified Countries]
- World Cup World Cup ko:축구 월드컵 ja:FIFAワールドカップ simple:FIFA World Cup th:ฟุตบอลโลก

Jules Rimet

Jules Rimet (born October 14, 1873 at Theuley-les Lavoncourt, France, died October 16, 1956) was president of the French Football Federation from 1919 to 1945 and of FIFA from 1921 to 1954. On Rimet's intiative, the first Football World Cup was held in 1930 (see Football World Cup 1930). The Jules Rimet Trophy was named in his honour. Rimet, Jules Rimet, Jules Rimet, Jules Rimet, Jules

England national football team

The England national football team represents England (not the whole United Kingdom) in international football competitions such as the World Cup and the European Championships. It is controlled by The Football Association, the governing body for football in England. Due to historical precedent, and continuing national sentiment among them, each of the four Home Nations of the United Kingdom possesses its own separate football association, domestic league and national team. Because the IOC does not accept regional representative teams, England, like the other three, do not compete in Olympic football. England are by far the most successful of the Home Nations, having won the 1966 World Cup and the British Home Championship outright thirty-four times, as many as the other three nations have won outright altogether.

History

Early years

England played in the first ever international football match, against Scotland at Hamilton Crescent in Partick, Glasgow, Scotland on November 30, 1872. The result was 0-0; England had to wait until the following year to record their first win, 4-2, over Scotland at the Kennington Oval. England would only play the other Home Nations (Scotland, Wales and what was then Ireland) for nearly 40 years - partly due to the dominance of the UK in international football, as well as the problems of arranging internationals in the days before air travel was commonplace. England first played Continental opposition in a 1908 tour of Central Europe, recording easy wins over Austria, Hungary and Bohemia. England's first defeat to a team outside the British Isles came in 1929, when they lost 4-3 to Spain in Madrid. The FA had joined FIFA in 1906, but the relationship between FIFA and the British associations was fraught, and the British nations withdrew from FIFA in 1928, in a dispute over payments to amateur players. This meant that England did not enter the first three World Cups. However many in England declared the team unofficial "World Champions" after they defeated 1934 World Cup winners Italy in the "Battle of Highbury" in November 1934.

Post-war

After the Second World War, the FA started to modernise their approach; they rejoined FIFA in 1946, the same year they appointed the first dedicated team manager, Walter Winterbottom (before then, the team was picked by a committee). England's World Cup debut came in 1950; however, they suffered an infamous 1-0 loss to the United States and failed to get beyond the first group stage. England struggled in the 1954 and 1958 tournaments, and all the signs pointed to how far behind English football had fallen behind the rest of the world. England's tactical inferiority was highlighted on November 25, 1953, when Hungary came to visit Wembley Stadium. Hungary, one of the best sides in the world and fielding legendary players such as Sándor Kocsis and Ferenc Puskás, outclassed the English 6-3 - this was England's first ever home loss to Continental opposition. In the return match in Budapest, Hungary won 7-1, which still stands as England's worst ever defeat. By the 1960s English tactics and training had started to improve, and England turned in a respectable performance in the , losing in the quarter-finals to eventual winners Brazil. After Winterbottom retired in 1962, former captain Alf Ramsey was appointed; Ramsey boldly predicted that England would win the following tournament, which England were hosting.

1966 World Cup

Alf Ramsey]] Ramsey's prediction came true, and the 1966 World Cup was England's finest moment. Captained by Bobby Moore, England's "Wingless Wonders" dispatched Argentina and then Portugal to set up a final with West Germany at Wembley. England won 4-2 after extra time, with three goals from Geoff Hurst and one from Martin Peters. The game popularized the British catchphrase "They think it's all over... it is now!", which were BBC commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme's words as Hurst scored his third goal in the 120th minute.

Decline in the 1970s

England came third in the 1968 European Championships, and were one of the favourites to win the 1970 World Cup; however, they fell in the quarter-finals to West Germany 3-2, having been 2-0 up. West Germany also beat England 3-1 on aggregate in the quarter-finals of the 1972 European Championships. Worse was to come as England failed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup after only managing a 1-1 draw against Poland in a qualifier at Wembley, largely thanks to the heroics of Polish goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski. In the aftermath of England's failure to reach the World Cup Finals, the FA sacked Sir Alf Ramsey. Of their 113 matches under Ramsey, England had won 69 and drawn 27. There was widespread distaste that, given his distinguished record, Ramsey had not been given the opportunity to resign. After a brief period where Joe Mercer was caretaker manager of the side, the FA appointed Don Revie as Ramsey's permanent successor. He fared even worse than Ramsey, as England failed to qualify from the group stages of the 1976 European Championships; Revie resigned halfway through England's unsuccessful bid to qualify for the 1978 World Cup. At the same time the team were attracting an ever-growing hooligan element in their support, especially at their matches abroad - at the 1980 European Championships Italian police deployed tear gas during a group match with Belgium. England qualified for the 1982 World Cup but failed to progress from the second group stage despite not losing any of their matches, in another tournament marred by violence.

Revival under Robson

Although at the time he was widely derided by the press, Bobby Robson is now looked upon as one of England's more successful managers. He took England to the 1986 World Cup, where they were knocked out by eventual winners Argentina in the quarter finals, thanks to two goals from Diego Maradona - the first the infamous "Hand of God" goal, where Maradona punched the ball into the net, the second after a 50-yard dribble past five England players that is widely regarded as one of the finest goals in history. As a small consolation, Gary Lineker won the tournament's Golden Boot. England's 1990 World Cup was their best since 1966; after a slow start in the group stage, England squeaked single-goal wins over Belgium and Cameroon in the knockout rounds, before being beaten on penalties by West Germany in the semi-finals, after drawing 1-1. The team's good performance, the relative lack of violence and the emergence of Paul Gascoigne - England's player of the tournament, who cried after being booked against West Germany (which would have ruled him out of the final had England won) - were all factors in the rehabilitation of football in British society in the 1990s.

Mixed 1990s

Robson's successor, Graham Taylor, was largely a failure - the team failed to win a game at and missed out on qualifying for the altogether; the team infamously went down 1-0 to minnows San Marino in a qualifying match after just eight seconds, one of the fastest international goals of all time, before recovering to win 7-1. Taylor was sacked in 1993 and replaced by Terry Venables, who oversaw a much improved performance at . With the tournament hosted in England and it being the 30th anniversary of the 1966 World Cup victory, fans' expectations were high; however, after famous victories over Scotland and the Netherlands, and a rare penalty shoot-out win over Spain, England fans were treated to déjà vu as their side lost their semi-final on penalties to Germany after drawing 1-1. Venables stepped down after Euro 96; his successor Glenn Hoddle oversaw England's successful qualification for the , but the team were knocked on penalties again, this time to old enemies Argentina after David Beckham had been sent off. Hoddle resigned the following year after stating his controversial beliefs about the disabled in a newspaper interview. Former captain Kevin Keegan took over, only just managing to get England into (after a 2-1 playoff win over Scotland), where a lacklustre England failed to get beyond the group stage. Keegan resigned in September 2000, after England lost their very last match at the old Wembley Stadium, a World Cup qualifier against Germany.

The Eriksson era

In 2001, the Swede Sven-Göran Eriksson was appointed as Keegan's successor, becoming the first foreign national to manage England. Eriksson turned around the team's campaign with a 5-1 victory over Germany; England came from behind with goals from Emile Heskey, Steven Gerrard and a Michael Owen hat-trick. England ensured qualification after a tense final game against Greece; David Beckham scored from a free kick in the last seconds of the game to make the score 2-2 and put England top of their group on goal difference. In the finals in Japan and South Korea England beat Argentina 1-0 in the group stage and reached the quarter-finals before being beaten 2-1 by the eventual winners Brazil. In , England came top of their qualification group after drawing 0-0 away to Turkey in their final qualifier. In the finals, despite a last-minute loss to France in the group stage, England were favoured to do well, but were knocked out in yet another penalty shootout, this time to hosts Portugal after a 2-2 draw in the quarter-finals. 2005 has seen Eriksson receive hefty criticism from fans for his defensive strategies and alleged lack of passion. A 4-1 loss to Denmark in a friendly was followed by a humiliating 1-0 defeat to Northern Ireland in a qualifier, which compounded criticism. An unconvincing 1-0 victory over Austria did nothing to relieve the pressure. However, despite these criticisms England qualified for the World Cup finals with one match to spare, and travel to Germany as group winners following a 2-1 victory and a much improved performance against Poland. In their first friendly match following qualification for the World Cup, England beat Argentina 3-2 in Geneva, Switzerland, in a game many have described as England's best performance in a very long time. The Swede has also received a degree of criticism during his time in charge for experimenting with his teams excessively during friendly matches, sometimes changing the entire eleven at half-time before FIFA ruled that only a maximum of five substitutions would be allowed in such games from 2004. He also received criticism from some quarters of the English media for 'cheapening' the captaincy of the England team by allowing lower-profile players such as Emile Heskey and Philip Neville to lead the team after substitutions. However, these critics generally ignored or were not aware of the fact that only the player leading the team at kick-off is officially recorded as having captained England, so players inheriting the armband later in games were not 'England captains' in the official sense.

World Cup record

- 1930 to 1938 - Did not enter
- 1950 - Round 1
- 1954 - Quarter-finals
- 1958 - Round 1
- 1962 - Quarter-finals
- 1966 - Winners
- 1970 - Quarter-finals
- 1974 - Did not qualify
- 1978 - Did not qualify
- 1982 - Round 2
- 1986 - Quarter-finals
- 1990 - 4th place
- 1994 - Did not qualify
- 1998 - Round 2
- 2002 - Quarter-finals
- 2006 - Qualified

European Championship record

- 1960 - Did not enter
- 1964 - Did not qualify
- 1968 - Third place
- 1972 - Did not qualify
- 1976 - Did not qualify
- 1980 - Round 1
- 1984 - Did not qualify
- 1988 - Round 1
- 1992 - Round 1
- 1996 - Semifinals
- 2000 - Round 1
- 2004 - Quarter-finals

Famous past players

Current players

Players who have recently been called up to England squads include: ;Goalkeepers
- David James - Manchester City (33 caps, 0 goals)
- Paul Robinson - Tottenham Hotspur (18 caps, 0 goals)
- Scott Carson - Liverpool (0 caps, 0 goals)
- Chris Kirkland - West Bromwich Albion (on loan from Liverpool) (0 caps, 0 goals)
- Robert Green - Norwich City (1 cap, 0 goals) ;Defenders
- Gary Neville - Manchester United (77 caps, 0 goals)
- Sol Campbell - Arsenal (66 caps, 1 goal)
- Phil Neville - Everton (52 caps, 0 goals)
- Ashley Cole - Arsenal (44 caps, 0 goals)
- Rio Ferdinand - Manchester United (44 caps, 1 goal)
- Jamie Carragher - Liverpool (22 caps, 0 goals)
- Wayne Bridge - Chelsea (21 caps, 1 goal)
- John Terry - Chelsea (21 caps, 0 goals)
- Ledley King - Tottenham Hotspur (occasionally employed in midfield) (15 caps, 1 goal)
- Luke Young - Charlton Athletic (7 caps, 0 goals)
- Paul Konchesky - West Ham (2 caps, 0 goals)
- Stephen Warnock - Liverpool (0 caps, 0 goals)
- Matthew Upson - Birmingham City (7 caps, 0 goals)
- Glen Johnson - Chelsea (5 caps, 0 goals)
- Zat Knight - Fulham (2 caps, 0 goals) ;Midfielders
- David Beckham - Real Madrid (86 caps, 16 goals)
- Steven Gerrard - Liverpool (39 caps, 6 goals)
- Frank Lampard - Chelsea (38 caps, 10 goals)
- Joe Cole - Chelsea (29 caps, 4 goals)
- Alan Smith - Manchester United (16 caps, 1 goal)
- Jermaine Jenas - Tottenham Hotspur (14 caps, 0 goals)
- Shaun Wright-Phillips - Chelsea (7 caps, 1 goal)
- Michael Carrick - Tottenham Hotspur (4 caps, 0 goals)
- Kieran Richardson - Manchester United (sometimes appers as a left back) (4 caps, 2 goals)
- Owen Hargreaves - Bayern Munich (31 caps, 0 goals) ;Strikers
- Michael Owen - Newcastle United (75 caps, 35 goals)
- Wayne Rooney - Manchester United (28 caps, 11 goals)
- Jermain Defoe - Tottenham Hotspur (15 caps, 1 goal)
- Peter Crouch - Liverpool (4 caps, 0 goals)
- Darren Bent - Charlton Athletic (0 caps, 0 goals)

Player records

Most capped England players

As of November 12, 2005, the ten players with the most caps for England are: Members of the 1966 World Cup-winning team are in bold.
- denotes a player still playing or available for selection. For a longer list of players with 25 caps or more, see List of England international footballers.

Top England goalscorers

Members of the 1966 World Cup-winning team are in bold.
- denotes a player still playing or available for selection.

England captains

Members of the 1966 World Cup-winning team are in bold.
- denotes a player still playing or available for selection.

England managers

Notes

#GF = Goals for #GA = Goals against #Accurate up to and including 3rd December 2005.

Home stadium

For the first 50 years of its existence, the England team played its home matches at different venues all around the country; for the first few years it used cricket grounds, before later moving on to football clubs' stadiums. England played their first match at Wembley Stadium in 1924, the year after it was completed, against Scotland, but for the next 27 years would only use Wembley as a venue for Scotland matches; other opposition were still entertained at club grounds around the country. In May 1951, Argentina became the first team other than Scotland to be entertained at Wembley, and by 1960 nearly all of England's home matches were being played there. Between 1966 and 1995, England did not play a single home match anywhere else. England's last match at Wembley before its demolition and reconstruction was against Germany on October 7, 2000, a game which England lost 1-0. Since then the team has played at 14 different venues around the country, with Old Trafford having been the most often used. The FA have ruled that when the new Wembley is completed in mid-2006, England's travels will end, and the team will play all of their home matches there until at least 2036. The main reason for this is financial. The FA did not own the old Wembley stadium, but it does own the new one, and has taken on debts of hundreds of millions of pounds to pay for it. Thus it needs to maximise the revenue from England matches, and does not wish to share it with the owners of other grounds.

External links

- [http://www.thefa.com/England/ Official website at the FA's website]
- [http://www.england06.net England06.net : A Guide To The England Football Team in the build up to the 2006 World Cup]
- [http://www.englandfootballonline.com/Match.html Archive of England national team results 1874-]
- [http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/eng-recintlp.html RSSSF archive of most capped players and highest goalscorers]
- [http://www.englandfanzine.co.uk The England Fanzine]
- [http://www.planetworldcup.com/NATIONS/eng.html Planet World Cup archive of results in the World Cup]
- [http://www.planetworldcup.com/NATIONS/eng_qualify.html Planet World Cup archive of squads in the World Cup]
- [http://www.planetworldcup.com/NATIONS/eng_squads.html Planet World Cup archive of results in the World Cup qualifiers]

Scotland national football team

The Scotland national football team have played international football longer than any other nation in the world along with England, whom they competed against in the world's first international football match at the West of Scotland Cricket Club, Partick, in 1872. The match ended 0-0. In recent years, Scotland has become famous for its travelling support, known as the Tartan Army, which has won numerous awards from FIFA and UEFA for their combination of rabid support and friendly nature. The Tartan Army and the roligans of Denmark are often considered the best national team fans in Europe, if not the world. Scotland have managed to qualify for eight World Cups - including 5 consecutive tournaments from 1974 to 1990 - but have never got past the first round. They have twice missed out on progressing to the second round on goal difference in 1974 when Brazil edged them out and also in 1978 when The Netherlands progressed. Scotland's most well-known result was in 1967, when they defeated the then FIFA world champions England 3-2 at Wembley Stadium. Scotland's first non-Scottish manager, Berti Vogts, managed the side from February 2002 until his resignation November 1, 2004. Tommy Burns was his assistant. On December 2, 2004 the former Rangers manager Walter Smith was named as manager of the national team. Despite a brief revival of fortunes, their hopes of reaching the 2006 World Cup were ended after a defeat to Belarus at Hampden Park.

Stadium

Scotland play their competitive home matches at Hampden Park in Glasgow, the same building the SFA has it's headquarters in, while friendly matches have on occasion been played elsewhere. Scotland are one of the few UEFA members that concentrates their matches on a city other than the capital.

World Cup record

- 1930 to 1938 - Did not enter
- 1950 - Qualified, but withdrew
- 1954 - Round 1
- 1958 - Round 1
- 1962 to 1970 - Did not qualify
- 1974 - Round 1
- 1978 - Round 1
- 1982 - Round 1
- 1986 - Round 1
- 1990 - Round 1
- 1994 - Did not qualify
- 1998 - Round 1
- 2002 - Did not qualify
- 2006 - Did not qualify

European Championship record

- 1960 - Did not enter
- 1964 - Did not enter
- 1968 to 1988 - Did not qualify
- 1992 - Round 1
- 1996 - Round 1
- 2000 - Did not qualify
- 2004 - Did not qualify

Managers

List of Scotland Managers

Note that from 1872 - 1954 the Scotland national team was appointed by an SFA selection committee.
- Andy Beattie 1954
- Matt Busby 1958
- Dawson Walker 1958-1959
- Andy Beattie 1959-1960
- Ian McColl 1960-1965
- Jock Stein 1965-1966
- John Prentice 1966
- Malcolm MacDonald 1966-1967
- Bobby Brown 1967-1971
- Tommy Docherty 1971-1972
- Willie Ormond 1973-1977
- Ally McLeod 1977-1978
- Jock Stein 1978-1985
- Alex Ferguson 1985-1986
- Andy Roxburgh 1986-1993
- Craig Brown 1993-2001
- Berti Vogts 2002-2004
- Walter Smith 2004-Present

Management Records

Some of the data in this table is dubious especially the information related to the SFA Select Comittee's record. Note that Matt Busby, Dawson Walker, John Prentice and Malcolm MacDonald are not included due to the fact that they were at the helm for a limited amount of time, therefore their Average Points would be unjust. The information is up-to-date as of 13/11/05 and Average Points are calculated by using 3 points for a win and one for a draw.

Rank	Manager	Played	Won	Drawn	Lost	Average Points
1	Ian McColl	28	17	3	8	64.3%
2	Tommy Docherty	10	5	3	2	60.0%
3	Craig Brown	69	31	18	20	53.6%
4	Willie Ormond	38	18	7	13	53.5%
5	Ally McLeod	17	7	5	5	51.0%
6	Jock Stein	68	30	13	25	50.5%
7	Walter Smith	9	3	4	2	48.1%
8	Bobby Brown	30	11	9	10	46.7%
9	Andy Roxburgh	63	23	19	21	46.6%
10	Alex Ferguson	10	3	4	3	43.3%
11	Berti Vogts	32	9	7	16	35.4%
12	Andy Beattie	18	5	4	9	35.2%
13	SFA Select Committee	122	15	48	59	25.4%

Famous players

¹ The player has at least 50 Scottish caps and is inducted into the SFA International Roll of Honour

External links

- [http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/ Scottish Football Association]
- [http://www.rsssf.com/tabless/scot-intres.html RSSSF Archive of results 1872-]
- [http://www.sfu.ca/~maxwell/scot_results.html Archive of results 1872- (divided into competitions)]
- [http://www.londonhearts.com/scotland/scotlandrecords.html Scotland records 1872-2001] Category:Football in Scotland

Football World Cup

History

Début of National Teams

Teams' Participations

¹Includes one appearance as Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, in 1998.

²Now Democratic Republic of the Congo.

³Now Indonesia.

Football World Cup tournaments

Note: FIFA has not yet specified which continent will host the World Cup in 2018 and 2022.

¹ There was no official World Cup Third Place match in 1930; USA and Yugoslavia lost in the semi-finals.'

World Cup winners ranking

World Cup Awards

Golden Boot - Top Goalscorers

The Golden Boot (or Golden Shoe) is awarded to the top goalscorer of the World Cup final tournament. The award was introduced at the 1982 World Cup for the first time.

Adidas Golden Ball

Yashin Award

The Yashin Award is attributed to the best goalkeeper of the World Cup final tournament. The award is named in honour of the late and legendary Russian goalkeeper, Lev Yashin.

FIFA Fair Play Award

The FIFA Fair Play Award is given to the team with the best record of fair play during the World Cup final tournament. Only teams that qualified for the second round are considered.

Most Entertaining Team

Gillete Best Young Player Award

Overall Top Goalscorers

Fastest Goals

External links

Uruguay

The Eastern Republic of Uruguay (Spanish: República Oriental del Uruguay) is a country located in southern South America. It is bordered by Brazil to the north, the Uruguay River to the west, the estuary of the Río de la Plata (literally "Silver River", but commonly known in English as "River Plate") to the southwest, with Argentina on the other bank of both, and finally the South Atlantic Ocean to the southeast. About half of its people live in the capital and largest city, Montevideo. The nation is the second-smallest country in South America and is one of the most politically and economically stable.

History

Main article: History of Uruguay The name "Uruguay" comes from Guaraní, the language of the native people of the region. It means "river of the painted birds." The first Europeans arrived in the area in the early 16th century. Both Spain and Portugal pursued the colonization of Uruguay, with the Spanish eventually gaining control. The future capital, Montevideo, was founded in the early 18th century and became a rival to Buenos Aires across the Río de la Plata. Montevideo, however, was thought of as a military center for the Spanish empire, while Buenos Aires was a commercial center. In the early 19th century, independence movements sprung up across South America, including Uruguay (then known as the Banda Oriental, or "Eastern Area", referring to the area east of the Río de la Plata). Uruguayan territory was contested between the nascent states of Brazil and Argentina. Brazil annexed the area in 1821 under the name of Provincia Cisplatina, but a revolt began on August 25, 1825, after which Uruguay became an independent country with the Treaty of Montevideo in 1828. The original population of Charrúa Indians was gradually decimated over three centuries, culminating on 11 April 1831 in a mass killing at Salsipuedes, which was led by General Fructuoso Rivera, Uruguay's first president. After that date the few remaining Charrúas were dispersed and a viable Charrúa culture was a thing of the past, although Charrúa blood still runs in the veins of many Uruguayans today as a result of extensive Charrúa-Spanish intermixing during colonial times. Four Charrúas — Senaqué, the leader Vaimaca Pirú, the warrior Tacuabé and his wife Guyunusa — were taken to Paris in 1833 to be displayed as circus attractions. In the latter part of the 19th century, Uruguay participated in the War of the Triple Alliance against Paraguay. Uruguay then experienced a series of elected and appointed presidents and saw conflicts with neighboring states, political and economic fluctuations and modernization, and large inflows of immigrants, mostly from Europe. The work of President José Batlle y Ordóñez made Uruguay an advanced nation with a complex welfare system; for most of the 20th century Uruguay was on par with European nations. Due to its advanced social system and its stable democracy, Uruguay came to be known as "the Switzerland of the Americas". The Uruguayan economy relies largely on agricultural exports. The world wars brought prosperity as Uruguayan beef and grain went to feed a war-ravaged Europe. World food prices dropped precipitously following the end of WWII, which triggered years of decline for the Uruguayan economy. By the 1960's, the stable social system began to break down as the economy spiralled. The government started losing popular support as students, workers and lower-class families felt the pain of an economy unable to adapt to a post-agricultural world economy. The Tupamaros, a radical leftist group, responded to the crisis with violence, which triggered government repression that ended with the suspension of individual rights by the president, Jorge Pacheco Areco, and his successor, Juan María Bordaberry. Finally, in 1973, the army seized power, ushering in 11 years of military dictatorship in what was once one of the most stable democracies in the region. In 1984, democracy was finally restored with the election of Julio María Sanguinetti.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Uruguay Uruguay's Constitution of 1967 created a strong presidency, subject to legislative and judicial controls. The president, who is both head of state and head of government, is elected by popular vote for a five-year term, with the vice president elected on the same ticket. Thirteen cabinet ministers, appointed by the president, head executive departments. The parliament is the bicameral General Assembly or Asamblea General, which consists of a 30-member senate (Cámara de Senadores), presided over by the vice president of the republic, and a 99-member Chamber of Representatives (Cámara de Representantes). Members for both houses are elected by popular vote for a five-year term. The highest court is the Supreme Court; below it are appellate and lower courts, and justices of the peace. In addition, there are electoral and administrative ("contentious") courts, an accounts court, and a military justice system. For most of Uruguay's history, the Colorado and National parties have alternated in power. The elections of 2004, however, brought the Encuentro Progresista-Frente Amplio-Nueva Mayoría, a coalition of various leftist parties, to power with majorities in both houses of parliament and the election of President Tabaré Vázquez Rosas by an absolute majority. Uruguay is a country of many diverse people and cultures.

Departments

Tabaré Vázquez Rosas Main article: Departments of Uruguay Uruguay consists of 19 departments (departamentos, singular - departamento):
- Artigas
- Canelones
- Cerro Largo
- Colonia
- Durazno
- Flores
- Florida
- Lavalleja
- Maldonado
- Montevideo
- Paysandú
- Río Negro
- Rivera
- Rocha
- Salto
- San José
- Soriano
- Tacuarembó
- Treinta y Tres

Geography

Treinta y Tres Main article: Geography of Uruguay Uruguay is the second-smallest country in South America, after Suriname. The landscape features mostly rolling plains and low hill ranges (cuchillas) with a fertile coastal lowland, most of it grassland, ideal for cattle and sheep raising. The highest point in the country is the Cerro Catedral at 514 m. To the southwest is the Río de la Plata (River of Silver), the estuary of the Uruguay River, which forms the western border, and the Paraná River, that does not run through Uruguay itself. The only other major river is the Río Negro. Several lagoons are found along the Atlantic coast. The climate in Uruguay is temperate, but fairly warm, as freezing temperatures are almost unknown. The predominantly flat landscape is also somewhat vulnerable to rapid changes from weather fronts, as well as to the pampero, a chilly and occasionally violent wind blowing north from the pampas plains in Argentina.

Enclaves and exclaves

There is one Argentine enclave within Uruguayan territory: the island of Martín García (co-ordinates ). It is situated near the confluence of the Paraná and Uruguay rivers, a mere kilometre inside Uruguayan waters, about 3.5 km from the Uruguayan coastline, near the small city of Martín Chico (itself about halfway between Nueva Palmira and Colonia). An agreement reached by Argentina and Uruguay in 1973 reaffirmed Argentine jurisdiction over the island, ending a century-old dispute between the two countries. According to the terms of the agreement, Martín García is to be devoted exclusively to a natural preserve. Its area is about 2 km², and the population about 200 persons. In addition, Gloria Recoda has exclusive land rights on a quarter of the island.

Economy

:Main article: Economy of Uruguay Uruguay's economy is characterised by an export-oriented agricultural sector, a well-educated workforce, and high levels of social spending, as well as a developed industrial sector. After averaging growth of 5% annually in 1996–1998, in 1999–2001 the economy suffered from lower demand in Argentina and Brazil, which together account for nearly half of Uruguay's exports. Despite the severity of the trade shocks, Uruguay's financial indicators remained more stable than those of its neighbours, a reflection of its solid reputation among investors and its investment-grade sovereign bond rating — one of only two in South America. In recent years Uruguay has shifted most of its energy into developing the commercial use of IT technologies and has become the leading exporter of software in Latin America. While some parts of the economy appeared to be resilient, the downturn had a far more severe impact on Uruguayan citizens, as unemployment levels rose to more than twenty percent, real wages fell, the peso was devalued, and the percentage of Uruguayans in poverty reached almost 40%. These worsening economic conditions played a part in turning public opinion against the free market economic policies adopted by the previous administrations in the 1990s, leading to popular rejection of proposals for privatization of the state petroleum company in 2003 and of the state water company in 2004. The newly elected Frente Amplio government, while pledging to continue payments on Uruguay's external debt, has also promised to undertake a crash jobs programs to attack the widespread problems of poverty and unemployment.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Uruguay As a Spanish-speaking country of Latin America, most Uruguayans share a Spanish cultural background, though about half of the population is of Italian origin. Some 88% of the population is of European descent, with mestizos (8%) and blacks (4%) forming the only significant ethnic minorities. Church and state are officially separated, with most adhering to the Roman Catholic faith (66%), with smaller Protestant (2%) and Jewish (1%) communities, as well as a large nonprofessing group (31%). Uruguay is distinguished by its high literacy rate, large urban middle class, and relatively even income distribution. During the past two decades, an estimated 500,000 Uruguayans have emigrated, principally to Argentina and Brazil. As a result of the low birth rate, high life expectancy, and relatively high rate of emigration of younger people, Uruguay's population is quite mature.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Uruguay
- Eduardo Galeano, writer and social commentator renowned throughout Latin America
- Jorge Majfud, Uruguayan writer
- List of Uruguayans
- Music of Uruguay
- Mario Benedetti, Uruguay's best-known novelist

Sports

Main article: Sports in Uruguay The most popular sport in Uruguay is football (called fútbol in Spanish), and the country has earned many honours in that sport, including gold medals at the 1924 and 1928 Olympics and two World Cups. The first football world championship was celebrated in Montevideo in 1930. Rugby, basketball and diving are also popular.

Miscellaneous topics

- Communications in Uruguay
- Foreign relations of Uruguay
- Military of Uruguay
- Reporters without borders World-wide press freedom index 2002: Rank 21 out of 139 countries (3 way tie)
- Transportation in Uruguay

External links

Government resources

- [http://www.ine.gub.uy/ INE] - National Statistics Institute (in Spanish)
- [http://www.poderjudicial.gub.uy/ Poder Judicial] - Official site of the Uruguayan Judiciary (in Spanish)
- [http://www.parlamento.gub.uy/ Poder Legislativo] - Official site of the Uruguayan Parliament (in Spanish)
- [http://www.uruguay.gub.uy/ Portal del Estado Uruguayo] - Uruguayan State portal (in Spanish)
- [http://www.presidencia.gub.uy/ Presidencia de la República Oriental del Uruguay] - Official presidential site (in Spanish)

General information

- [http://www.uruguaytotal.com/ Uruguay Total] - Uruguayan portal (in Spanish)
- [http://www.uruguay.com/ Uruguay.com] - Uruguayan portal (in Spanish, with English links)
- [http://dmoz.org/Regional/South_America/Uruguay Open Directory Project - Uruguay] directory category (multiple languages)
- [http://fromuruguay.blogspot.com/ From Uruguay] - Uruguayan blog (in English)
- [http://www.vino-uruguay.com/index.php?Lang=en Wine Uruguay] - Uruguayan Wine Guide (in English, Spanish, German)

Media

- [http://www.elpais.com.uy/ El País] - Montevideo daily newspaper
- [http://www.diariolarepublica.com/ La República] - Montevideo daily newspaper
- [http://www.observa.com.uy/ El Observador] - Montevideo daily newspaper
- [http://www.espectador.com/ El Espectador] - Montevideo radio station
- [http://www.sarandi690.com.uy/ Radio Sarandí] - Montevideo radio station
- [http://www.montevideo.com.uy/ Montevideo.com] - Montevideo news web site.

Travel and commerce

- [http://www.turismo.gub.uy/index.php Ministerio de Turismo del Uruguay] - Government tourism information site (in Spanish, Portuguese and English)
-
- [http://www.uruguayxxi.gub.uy/ Uruguay XXI] - Investment and Export Promotion (in Spanish and English)
- [http://www.traveltouruguay.com/ Traveltouruguay.com] - Touristic information and promotion

Sports

- [http://www.auf.org.uy/ Asociación Uruguaya de Fútbol] - Uruguayan Football Association (in Spanish)
- [http://www.fubb.org.uy Federación Uruguaya de Basketball] - Uruguayan Basketball Federation (in Spanish)
- [http://www.uru.org.uy Unión de Rugby del Uruguay] - Uruguayan Rugby Union (in Spanish) Category:South American countries
- zh-min-nan:Uruguay ko:우루과이 ms:Uruguay ja:ウルグアイ th:ประเทศอุรุกวัย fiu-vro:Uruguay

Economic depression

In economics, a depression is a term commonly used for a sustained downturn in the economy. It is more severe than a recession (which is seen as a normal downturn in the business cycle). Considered a rare but extreme form of recession, the start of a depression is characterised by unusual increases in unemployment, restriction of credit, shrinking output and investment, price deflation and/or hyperinflation, numerous bankruptcies, reduced amounts of trade and commerce, as well as violent currency devaluations. Unlike a recession, there is no official definition for a depression, even though some have been proposed. Generally it is marked by a substantial and sustained shortfall of the ability to purchase goods relative to the amount that could be produced given current resources and technology (potential output). One could say that while a recession refers to the economy "falling down," a depression is a matter of "not being able to get up." The most noted depression is the Great Depression that affected much of the world in the 1930s. Also notable is the U.S. Long Depression that lasted from the 1870s until the 1890s. The situation of Japan in the 1990s after the bubble economy popped has also been termed a depression. Today many economists believe that the combination of the social safety net and a much better understanding of macroeconomics makes another Great Depression highly unlikely. Others believe that with growing US deficits, increasing bankruptcies, the attainment of peak oil, plus other factors, the US is in the early stages of the next great depression. It should be noted that governments may resort to heavy-handed methods to deal with the civil unrest caused by the economic difficulties presented by a depression. They may even conceive of a war in order to create the idea of an enemy common to both the government and the downtrodden masses (such as arguably was the case in WW2).

Football World Cup 1934

The 1934 Football World Cup was hosted by Mussolini's Italy. It was the first football World Cup for which teams would have to qualify in order to take part. The number of participating nations this time doubled from the previous tournament, but only 10 of the 32 nations came from outside the continent of the host nation. Italy became the second World Cup champions, beating Czechoslovakia in the final, 2-1. Mussolini's influence is said to have extended to the choice of referees for Italy's matches. The Swedish referee who refereed the semi-final and final was said to have met with Mussolini before the matches, and disputed decisions were given in favour of Italy. Some referees ruled so much in Italy's favour that they were suspended by their home nations after the tournament. This World Cup was unique in two ways. First, the reigning World Cup holders Uruguay declined an invitation to participate as a mark of defiance against the European snub from the previous World Cup in 1930, becoming the only holders not to compete in the following tournament. Second, the hosts, Italy, had to qualify. The preliminary round took the form of a knockout stage, which saw eight European teams: Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland advance. The quarterfinals provided the first replay that the World Cup had seen when Italy and Spain drew 1-1 after extra time. Italy won the replay 1-0, and then went on to beat Austria by the same margin. Meanwhile Czechoslovakia secured their place in the final by beating Germany 3-1. The Del Partiti stadium provided the venue for the final and with 70 minutes played, the Czechoslovakians were ahead 1-0. The Italians managed to pull level before the final whistle, and then added another goal in extra time to be crowned World Cup Winners.

Qualification

See Football World Cup 1934 (qualification).

First Round

May 27, Stadio Giorgio Ascarelli, Naples - 4 - 2 May 27, Stadio Luigi Ferraris, Genoa - 3 - 1 May 27, Stadio Littorale, Bologna - 3 - 2 May 27, Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan - 3 - 2 May 27, Stadio Littorio, Trieste - 2 - 1 May 27, Stadio Giovanni Berta, Florence - 5 - 2 May 27, Stadio Benito Mussolini, Turin - 3 - 2 (AET) May 27, Stadio Nazionale PNF, Rome - 7 - 1

Quarterfinals

May 31, Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan - 2 - 1 May 31, Stadio Benito Mussolini, Turin - 3 - 2 May 31, Stadio Littorale, Bologna - 2 - 1 May 31, Stadio Giovanni Berta, Florence - 1 - 1 (AET) Replay: June 1, Stadio Giovanni Berta, Florence - 1 - 0

Semifinals

June 3, Stadio Nazionale PNF, Rome - 3 - 1 June 3, Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan - 1 - 0

Third Place Match

June 7, Stadio Giorgio Ascarelli, Naples - 3 - 2

Final

June 10, Stadio Nazionale PNF, Rome - 2 - 1 (AET) Attendance: 50,000 Referee: Ivan Eklind (Sweden) Goals: Puč (TCH) 76', Orsi (ITA) 81', Schiavio (ITA) 95'. Category:Football World Cup Football World Cup Category:Sport in Italy ja:1934 FIFAワールドカップ

Galvany

El barri de Galvany ocupa el sudoest de l'antic poble de Sant Gervasi de Cassoles integrat en l'actual districte de Sarrià-Sant Gervasi a la ciutat de Barcelona. El barri pren el nom del mercat municipal situat al bell mig entre els carrers Santaló, Calaf, Amigó i Madrazo i ocupa la superfície delimitada pels carrers Calvet, Via Augusta, Aribau i Diagonal fins a la confluència amb Travessera de Gràcia i Calvet. La població del barri és majoritàriament d'extracció social burgesa i de classe alta i el nucli més antic es troba al voltant dels carrers Sagués i Amigó. A partir de la dècada dels cinquanta del segle passat s'hi van aixecar nombrosos edificacions, de les quals les més luxoses es toben al carrer Muntaner. Avui és un barri amb una gran vida nocturna per la gran quantitats de bars, restaurants i locals nocturns que hi ha especialment al voltant del carrer Santaló i adjacents Categoria:Barris de Barcelona

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Obra

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- Lista de autores da Galiza

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